According to EastFruit analysts, Russia continues to increase its domestic production and expand its infrastructure for the storage of basic vegetables, such as carrots, cabbage, beets and garlic. This is allowing the country to reduce its dependence on imports. In some cases, it is even becoming able to export.
In the first 11 months of 2018, onion imports to Russia fell by 52% compared with the same period in 2017 and amounted to just over 146 thousand tons. Carrot imports decreased by 10% to 155 thousand tons, and imports of all types of fresh cabbage fell by 17% to 97 thousand tons. Garlic imports decreased the least, by 8%, down to 46 thousand tons.
At the same time, Russia slightly increased its potato imports (by 2%, to 533 thousand tons). Thus, the second bread for Russians remained the most imported vegetable in terms of volume. Also worth noting is the growth of beet imports, which increased by 10%, to 41 thousand tons.
Egypt remained the main supplier of potatoes to Russia, accounting for 66% of all deliveries in the first 11 months of 2018. Potato shipments from Pakistan to Russia also increased. Russia imported carrots from Israel, China, Belarus (to a large extent re-exports from the EU, according to market participants) and Egypt. In total, these countries accounted for 91% of all shipments.
The bulk of onions on the Russian market came from China and Egypt (57%), while cabbage was supplied mainly by China and Uzbekistan (60%), as well as from Belarus, Kazakhstan and Iran.