Russian Food Ban

Fall in Russian fruit and veg imports from China

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In the first seven months of this year, Russia imported a total of 398.9 thousand tonnes of fruit and vegetables from China; a lower volume than the 417.4 thousand tonnes of the same period last year, but higher than the 391.8 thousand tonnes recorded two years ago, reports FAMMU/FAPA with data from Factsheet Russia.

From this it can be concluded that China has not observed a clear change in its volume of exports to Russia after the introduction of the embargo to EU imports.

In 2014, Chinese fruit and vegetable exports to Russia amounted to 706.7 thousand tonnes, compared to 654.7 thousand tonnes a year earlier. Of the nearly 399 thousand tonnes imported by Russian in 2015, about 100.2 thousand tonnes corresponded to fruit and the remaining 298.7 thousand tonnes to vegetables.

The most exported products were onions, with more than 69 thousand tonnes, tomatoes, with almost 66 thousand tonnes and cabbage, with 53.9 thousand tonnes. Shipments also included about 47.6 thousand tonnes of apples, 34.7 thousand tonnes of carrots, 22.7 thousand tonnes of garlic and 18.4 thousand tonnes of peppers.

www.freshplaza.com

Russia bans food imports from Ukraine

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Moscow will impose a food embargo on Ukraine starting from 1 January 2016, when the economic part of Kiev’s European Association Agreement comes into force, according to Russia’s Economic Development Minister Aleksey Ulyukaev.

“Since Ukraine joined economic and financial sanctions against the Russian Federation, we have decided to introduce protective measures by imposing a food embargo,” said the minister.

The measure is expected to protect the Russian market from the illegal supply of embargoed European goods that will become available in Ukraine under the Association Agreement with the EU.

“There’s a high probability we will have to unilaterally protect our market from uncontrolled imports of goods from third parties through the customs territory of Ukraine, primarily from the European Union,” said Ulyukaev.

Moscow introduced a one-year ban on agricultural produce, food and raw materials from countries that joined sanctions against Russia. This includes many EU countries.

Ulyukaev added the Kremlin plans to introduce customs tariffs on import of other goods from Ukraine. The tariffs will be introduced because Ukraine will no longer be part of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) free trade zone and should not, therefore, enjoy membership benefits.

Ukraine will lose $600 million in exports in 2016 because of the Russian embargo, said Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk. He stressed that Moscow’s actions are illegal and are “another manifestation of the economic aggression” towards Kiev.

Russia and Ukraine are currently trading in accordance with the free trade agreement between the CIS countries. Moscow said this fall that Kiev could lose both the tariff-free preference and food exports to Russia.

Ulyukaev has said that Russia has no plans for further sanctions against the EU if the situation doesn’t deteriorate.

www.rt.com

Over 1,000 tonnes of sanctioned produce denied entry into Russia

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According to an official press release of Russia’s Federal Customs Service, inspectors of Russia’s Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) and the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor) together with customs workers collected more than 1,000 tonnes of contraband.

From September 2014 to September of this year, 404,8 tonnes of contraband food were destroyed in Russia, while inspectors had returned an additional 777 tonnes to Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Two hundred thirty six vendors received notices for cases initiated against them for administrative violations. The total amount of fines for these infractions is 4.1 million rubles.

www.fruitnews.info

Armenia doubled export volumes to Russia

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The embargo imposed on EU exports has boosted interest for Armenian products in Russia. This year, a huge increase has been registered in the export of fruits and vegetables just to that market.

In the period between January and the end of September this year, the volume of fruit and vegetable shipments from Armenia has doubled compared to the same period last year. In total, during these nine months, the country exported 61.0 thousand tonnes of fresh horticultural products, compared to the 36.0 thousand tonnes shipped in the same period of 2014.

About 84 percent of Armenia’s total fruit and vegetable exports this year have gone to Russia, with the biggest increase being recorded for grapes. In addition to Russia, Armenian products have also hit the Georgian, Kazakh and Belarusian markets.

www.freshplaza.com

Russia bans food imports from Bulgaria

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Russia has banned imports of all agricultural produce from Bulgaria as of September 1, over forged certificates from the EU country, Russia’s agriculture watchdog said in a statement Thursday.

A wide range of food imports from Bulgaria is already subject to Russia’s food embargo, which Russia introduced last year in response to Western sanctions imposed on the country over its role in the Ukraine crisis.

The new restrictions were introduced after Bulgaria acknowledged that a number of export and re-export agricultural certificates were false, agriculture watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said in a statement. Rosselkhoznadzor has imposed a temporary ban on all agricultural imports and re-exports from Bulgaria.

On April 25, Russia imposed a ban on re-exported fruit and vegetables from Bulgaria over a number of cases involving fake certificates. Rosselkhoznadzor suspected that exported apples, which according to Bulgarian certificates were being re-exported from Brazil, Morocco and China, actually came from EU countries, the Interfax news agency reported at the time.

www.freshplaza.com

 

Russia’s Customs Service notes sharp drop of banned food items within market

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The head of Russia’s Federal Customs Union, Andrei Belyaninov, reported that there has been noticeably fewer instances of illegal food products on the Russian market since August 6, when the directive to destroy smuggled products entered into force.

“The volume of these goods decreased after they started being destroyed. When we began destroying (smuggled products), the heads of border customs authorities started reporting that much of it has stopped because it was a serious financial blow for those companies, who were taking part in such activities (i.e. importing banned food products),” Belyaninov said, as quoted by the publication TASS.

The agency head added that “the volume of destruction has been small but as a preventative measure, it made its point”.

www.fruitnews.info

Putin signed a decree ordering the destruction of food brought against Russian food ban on Western products

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Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree Wednesday ordering the “destruction” of all food brought into the country against import bans on Western products. The import bans were part of sanctions instituted in 2014 in response to Western sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine crisis.

The order will come into effect on Aug. 6. “[A]gricultural goods, raw materials and food originating from a country that has made the decision to introduce economic sanctions against Russian entities and/or individuals, or has joined such a decision, and which are prohibited from being imported into the Russian Federation … are subject to destruction,” the decree read, according to the Moscow Times.

The sanctions on Russia and those imposed by the country on Western countries have not affected Russia alone. Many European countries who were large exporters to Russia have also taken a hit. French dairy farmers have been protesting unfair prices and a shrinking market since the start of July, and a large part of that problem was due to the disappearance of the Russian market for French cheese.

The new decree does not pertain to the small amounts of Western goods that citizens are allowed to bring back from Europe or the U.S. for personal consumption. The limits of “personal consumption” have often been tested, with Russians attempting to smuggle large amounts of imported cheese or other specialty goods into the country. Earlier this month, a Russian man was caught attempting to smuggle 1,000 pounds of contraband cheese into the country. A large black market for these banned products has quickly emerged in the past year, complete with back room dealings.

www.ibtimes.com

Nuts, dried fruits and frozen vegetables: the greatest price increase over the year

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The Russian Federal Statistics Service reports that since June last year to June this year the greatest increase in prices was for frozen vegetables, nuts and dried fruits – products with an average price not more than 500 rubles.

The fall of the Russian currency in the second half of 2014 influenced the prices. As a result, prices of imported products grew, consumers began to save and some stores increased the cost of top-selling items.

Since June 2014, the price of nuts in Russia grew by more than 80%, from 311.5 rubles up to 564.5 rubles per kg. Price for dried fruit grew by 64.6% – from 174.2 rubles up to 286.8 rubles per kg. The cost of frozen vegetables increased by 59.5% from 122.4 rubles to 195.1 rubles per kg.

According to experts, this rise in prices was affected not only by the fall of the Russian currency but also by the food ban, imposed last August. At the same time there were also other factors: Turkey increased the price of hazelnuts because of the poor harvest caused by the frost. Azerbaijan, another supplier of nuts, increased the price for the nuts before the food ban and ruble weakening.

www.fruitnews.ru

St. Petersburg Arbitration Court allowed to sell banned products

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The Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and Leningrad region allowed to sell products banned by the Russian counter-sanctions.

“The government restricted import of certain products, not their sale. According to this, the restriction on sales of dairy products, including cheese, is not enshrined in law”, – judge Sinitsyna decided.

The Court considered the appeal of JSC “Tander” (Magnit retail chain), as in one in the stores cheese, produced in France, was found. “Tander” had to pay the fine for illegal sale of goods, free sale of which is prohibited or restricted. However, the court decided that the ban on the importation of goods is not equal to the ban on the sale of these products.

www.ria.ru

Russian retail: Ban extension will not change prices or assortment

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Extending the Russian food ban is not such a problem for local retailers, since for less than a year they was able to find a replacement for most banned products, according to a survey conducted by RIA Novosti.

In August 2014, Russia restricted imports of food products from the EU, USA, Canada, Norway and Australia. Meat products, fish, vegetables, fruits, dairy products were banned. In late June, the Russian government extended the ban until August 5, 2016, excluding from the list of oysters and mussels fry and banning import of all cheeses, tightening the rules for import of lactose-free dairy products.

General opinion of the retailers is that ban extension will not influence prices as the new network of suppliers has already built. Although other factors such as seasonality, currency volatility, inflation, regulatory changes may affect prices.

It can be noted that there is a larger assortment range of domestic products on the shelves. Maria Kurnosova, Director of External Communications of “Auchan” noted that the share of imported products is about 3%. In “Dixie”retail chain the share of domestic production is about 90%. The specific demand for imported goods remains, but this applies only to certain groups of products, such as alcohol or fruit.

www.ria.ru