Russia is an important sales market for fresh fruit and vegetables. Every year the Russian market is worth an import value of almost 8 billion dollars. The volume is around 8 million tonnes. Last year the import was a little lower than that of the record year 2011. This decrease can be attributed to the smaller import of vegetables, mainly that of onions. In reality, the import of fresh vegetables has been stagnating since 2008, whereas the import of fresh fruit grew until 2011 and stabilised last year (see tables 1 and 3 to 6).
The Russian market is very important for Holland. However, according to KCB figures the sales of Dutch products decreased dramatically last year. If the KCB registration is correct, the decrease of Dutch product from 192,000 to 127,000 tonnes is completely due to the decrease in the export of onions (table 9). Besides Dutch product there is also a considerable amount of foreign product transported to Russia through Holland. Based on the statistics it is difficult to get a good image of the size of the total trade between Holland and Russia.
As the trade mainly goes through Lithuania, the import of fruit and vegetables (incl. re-export) from Holland in Lithuania gives the best image of the amounts concerned. According to Eurostat figures it was 370,000 tonnes in 2012: 198,000 tonnes of vegetables and 172,000 tonnes of fruit (table 15). Almost all of this will have ended up on the Russian market (Lithuania only has 3.5 million inhabitants and Russia has over 140 million).
Russian production stable
Russia itself produces huge amounts of vegetables: especially cabbage, tomatoes, onions and carrots. The fruit production is considerably smaller and watermelons and apples are the two most important products. The production has been reasonably stable for the past few years (table 2).
For the total import, fruit is more important than vegetables. Over the past few years the fruit import has shown a steady rise to around 6 million tonnes in recent years. The import of vegetables was over 2 million in 2011, but decreased last year.
Fruit: Import mainly bananas and apples
In terms of fruit, apples and bananas are the leading import products. In 2011 the import of bananas reached a peak for the time being. In 2012 less bananas were imported. The import of apples, on the other hand, was biggest in 2012 and knocked bananas off the top spot. Soft citrus, oranges, pears, grapes, peaches/nectarines and lemons are the products which form the middle. Out of these products, only the import of peaches peaked in 2012 (tables 3 and 4 and 18 through 23).
Bananas come almost exclusively from Ecuador. For apples there was a huge increase in the import from Poland in 2012. The import from Moldavia and China and a number of other countries greatly decreased. Holland is a small player in the Russian apple market and in 2012 there was also a decrease. According to the KCB the export of Dutch apples fell from 11,400 tonnes in 2011 to 7,850 tonnes in 2012. According to the Russian import statistics 8,400 tonnes of apples were imported from Holland. Lithuania’s import statistics add up to an import from Holland of 13,700 tonnes. Pears are the main product imported from Holland to Russia. The KCB adds up to and export of 53,000 tonnes of Dutch pears in 2012.
For Holland, however, the Russian vegetable market is more important than the fruit market. Last year the export of Dutch vegetables dropped greatly, but this was due to the strong decline in the export of Dutch onions to Russia. In 2011 there was 86,000 tonnes and in 2012 only 23,000 tonnes. The export of other Dutch vegetable products to Russia has shown a very slight downward trend in recent years. Tomato is the largest of the rest and came near 20,000 tonnes for the first time. Carrots, white cabbage and peppers are, at a distance, the other vegetable products going to Russia. The export of cabbage decreased greatly in 2012 (table 9).
Russia’s big vegetable supplier is, however, Turkey, but the package that this country supplies, is very limited. Three quarters of it is tomatoes (table 42). China is second on the list. Last year the import from that country did suffer a big drop. Important products that China supplies are: tomatoes, onions (a lot less in 2012 than in previous years), carrots and garlic. Israel and Poland are also still ahead of Holland as suppliers. Israel is big in carrots and peppers and Poland is big in cabbage and mushrooms. (tables 42 to 46).
Source: www.freshplaza.com
