Russian research sheds new light on the import substitution the Kremlin is focusing on and which partly forms the basis for the boycott, but it seems to have trouble taking off. The study divides the import by commodity and value. Import substitution of value means less is spent on import, and more on domestic production. For commodity, this means the import isn’t replaced if less is imported, while the market is also shrinking.
According to statistics, the import went down by 27 percent between January and August, and consumption in those months went down by ten percent. In the wake of the rising food prices, researchers saw that the imported products were replaced by domestic produce.
The import share in retail also decreased significantly, but in terms of value the import in August surpassed the import value of a year earlier. This suggests that households spend the same amount on imported products, but they are buying lower numbers.