As Moscow banned food imports from the West, Turkey voiced its readiness to increase its exports of agricultural products to Russia, Turkish economy minister has said.
“Turkey is a major
supplier of food and agricultural produce to Russia. It is ready
to increase its food exports to Russia if necessary,”
Turkish Economy Minister
Nihat Zeybekci said in an interview with Itar-Tass.
The two countries have
recently reached an agreement to increase the number of Turkish
food suppliers to Russia. A delegation from Russia’s
agricultural watchdog, Rosselkhoznadzor (the Federal Service for
Veterinary and Phyto-Sanitary Control), visited Ankara for
negotiations in the search for alternative food supply sources
following the sanctions imposed on Russia by the EU, Russia’s top
food supplier, the US, the EU, Australia and Canada.
To reciprocate, on August 6 Russia introduced a full ban for imports of beef and pork (fresh,
chilled, refrigerated, pickled, dried or smoked meat), poultry
and any poultry edible products, fish, cheese, milk, dairy
products, vegetables, including root vegetables and tuber crops,
and fruit from Australia, Canada, the EU, the US and Norway.
Moscow is now set to ensure country’s food supply security by
finding new suppliers in countries that have not joined the
sanctions against Russia. Some of the country’s closest
neighbors, China and Turkey, have been among the first
candidates for a lucrative offer to extend their share of the
Russia market.
Turkish food suppliers would do their best to ensure sufficient
good quality, inexpensive food products to Russia to replace
European food supplies, the Turkish minister said.
Last year, Turkey’s agricultural export to Russia reached $1.18
billion, with fruits and vegetables making up nearly 75 percent
($877 million) of the total turnover. In 2014, Turkish
agricultural exports to Russia have so far totaled $409 million.
Zeybekci said that Turkey exported $17 billion worth of
agricultural products in 2013, of which fresh fruit and
vegetables accounted for less than 14 percent ($2.3 billion).
Russia bought 6.9 percent of Turkey’s global exports of
agricultural products.
The head of the Russian agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor,
Sergey Dankvert, announced on Thursday that his agency has held
talks with 16 countries as alternative supply sources for the
Russian food market. Moscow has been talking to Argentina,
Belarus, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Kyrgyzstan,
Mauritius, Mexico, Mozambique, Paraguay, Peru, Sri Lanka, Turkey
and Uruguay to replace American, Australian, Canadian and
European food suppliers.
The EU Council has already demanded that third countries not to
take advantage of the new trade opportunities brought by the
conflict between Russia and western states, and to resist seeking
to replace European food on the Russian market, in what it is
claiming is a move to promote international unity and compliance
with international law.
The European Commission is now assessing the losses from Russia’s
countersanctions in anticipation of a special meeting of 28 EU
agriculture ministers to be held in September to discuss possible
countermeasures.
Moscow has been warning Western countries for months that
sanctions are counterproductive,
and has said it will first and foremost strike back against
countries imposing them.
According to Russian customs data, Western imports now affected
by sanctions totaled $9.1 billion in 2013. The EU, with its $6.5
billion worth of now-sanctioned products, would suffer the most,
with non-EU member Norway following, with $1.2 billion worth of
mostly fish products. The other countries that joined the
sanctions would lose less, as the US has a $843.8 million food
trade turnover with Russia. Canada’s bilateral trade is $373.6
million and Australian agricultural exports to Russia were
estimated at $182 million.
Article source: http://rt.com/business/180776-turkey-agricultural-exports-russia/
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