You're reading: Russia decreases imports of products from sanctions list

MOSCOW - Russia decreased imports of products which are on the sanctions list this year in H1 46 percent year-on-year to $6 billion, a Ministry of Economic Development outcome monitoring said.

The largest decrease was seen in dairy product deliveries,
firstly with cheese and butter, as well as meat and fish, pears and quince.

According
to the Federal Customs Service (FTS) meat imports were down to $962 million
against $1.719 billion in H1 last year. Fish was down to $447 million against
$988 million, and milk and creams, $196 against $343 last year. In real terms,
the supply of meat decreased 33.5 percent and fish 44.7 percent.

From
January-June, $12.629 billion in food products and agricultural raw materials
was imported into Russia, which is down 38.4 percent year-on-year, from 20.512
billion in 2014. In the commodity structure of imports, the share of these
products increased 0.16 p.p. to 14.6 percent.

Additionally,
the service noted a decrease in exports of food products and agricultural raw
materials 15.8 percent. “Foreign policy aspects have had a significant
impact on exports, the sanctions imposed by Western countries and the response
measures against importing food products,” the document said.

The
volume of exports of wheat and rye in the first half of this year decreased 4.1
percent year-on-year, with sunflower oil down 11.9 percent, fish 9.3 percent,
and vodka 41.2 percent. The main importers of Russian domestic agricultural
products are CIS countries, Asia, North African countries, as well as a number
of European Union countries like the Netherlands, Latvia, German, Italy,
Poland, Lithuania, Spain, Denmark, Belgium, and others.

Domestic
product exports have been actively developed lately with China. “From
January-June an increase in export volumes of food products to China was
noticed, which is due to the situation on the currency market,” the
statement says.

Meat,
meat products, fish, and fish products, milk and diary products as well as
vegetables and fruit all fall under restricted items on the sanctions list.

The
food embargo which started on August 7, 2014, applies to products from the
United States, European Union, Australia, Norway and Canada. Other countries
such as Albania, Montenegro, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and under special
circumstances, Ukraine have been added to the list as of August 3 for joining
in on the anti-Russian sanctions.