Over the past six years, Russia has cut the supply of food products from abroad by almost a third - from $ 43.3 billion in 2013 to $ 30 billion in 2019. This is stated in the report of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, dedicated to summing up the results of the food embargo for the specified period.

Recall that on August 6, 2014, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree banning the import of certain types of agricultural products into Russia from countries that had previously imposed sanctions against Moscow. We are talking, in particular, about the EU states, the USA, Canada and Australia. The ban affected meat, sausages, dairy products, fish and seafood, vegetables and fruits.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, over six years, imports of pork decreased almost tenfold (from $ 2.6 billion to $ 270 million), cattle meat - 2.5 times (from $ 3.2 billion to $ 1.3 billion), poultry - by half (from $ 911 million to $ 410 million), and vegetables and dairy products - by a third.

During the same time, the volume of state support for agriculture in Russia has grown by more than one and a half times and in 2019 exceeded 311 billion rubles, while the production of agro-industrial products increased by 22.4%. As a result, as noted in the ministry, the industry has become "one of the drivers of the Russian economy."

Moreover, over the years of the pro-embargo, Russia has significantly improved its food security indicators. Managing partner of Agro & Food Communications agency Ilya Bereznyuk spoke about this in an interview with RT.

“For example, Russian cheeses were able to get up to 70-80% of places on the shelves of our stores, while before the embargo the figure was at the level of 30-40%. Vegetable growing also showed good results. Thanks to restrictions on imports and state subsidies, Russian farmers now provide the food market with cucumbers by 100%, and for tomatoes by 55-57%. Mushroom growing has also risen due to the fact that we began to grow champignons and oyster mushrooms ourselves after the restrictions were introduced, ”Bereznyuk said.

New customers

Moreover, Russian farmers were able not only to meet the country's domestic needs for food, but also to increase exports, as well as enter foreign markets for some positions of agricultural products.

“Russian agricultural exports increased by one and a half times and amounted to $ 25.6 billion at the end of 2019 against $ 16.8 billion in 2013. In particular, a significant increase in the supply of meat and fat and oil products, food and processing industry products abroad was recorded, ”the report of the Ministry of Agriculture says.

“Russia has become one of the leaders in the supply of wheat, vegetable oil, fish, sugar and a number of other categories,” the document says.

According to the department's forecast, in the current agricultural year (from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021), Russia is able to increase the supply of wheat abroad by 4.5% - up to 35 million tons. According to this indicator, the country can noticeably bypass other large exporters, such as the European Union (28.5 million tons), the United States (26 million) and Canada (24.5 million tons).

“Today we supply wheat to almost 100 countries around the world. Also, in recent years, Russia has increased the supply of poultry and chicken offal to China. In addition, our fish producers actively sell fish to South Korea, Japan and African countries, including Nigeria. At the same time, Vietnam buys almost a full range of food from us - from wheat to poultry meat, ”Ilya Bereznyuk noted.

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At the end of 2019, the main buyers of Russian food were China (the country's share accounted for 13% of all supplies of agricultural products), Turkey (10%), Kazakhstan (7.3%), South Korea (6.3%) and Egypt (6% ). The investment strategist of BCS Premier Alexander Bakhtin told RT about this.

“It should be noted that at first the introduction of the prodembargo turned out to be difficult for our farmers. At that time, as a result of the weakening of the ruble, imported specialized equipment, feed and additives, agrochemicals rose in price, and the purchasing power of the population decreased, and loans rose in price. Nevertheless, the “vacuum” after import restrictions was quickly filled by domestic products, and as the domestic market saturated, manufacturers began to pay more and more attention to export development. For companies, this is primarily diversification of sales markets and foreign exchange earnings, ”said Alexander Bakhtin.

According to him, the growth of agriculture observed in recent years has given an impetus for the development of food, processing and light industries. At the same time, with an increase in the needs of a developing industry, the production of mineral fertilizers, pesticides and engineering products increased, the expert added.

Constraint effect

As noted in the Ministry of Agriculture, the action of restrictive measures also contributed to the inflow of investments, the creation of additional jobs in agriculture and related industries. This situation has provided additional support to the economy in the context of the coronavirus pandemic.

“The opening and intensive development of agricultural enterprises throughout the country has significantly improved the employment situation in rural areas. Moreover, today, when Russia, like the whole world, is faced with various consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, the agro-industrial complex acts as a donor of jobs for other sectors of the economy and is ready to accept specialists from a variety of areas, including high-tech areas, "said Minister of Agriculture Dmitry Patrushev ...

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At the same time, the food sanctions imposed have caused significant damage to European agricultural producers, experts interviewed by RT admit. As Ilya Bereznyuk noted, suppliers of fish and dairy products were the first to suffer. In addition, European exporters of pork and fruit suffered losses, said Alexander Bakhtin.

“For example, almost half of the apples and pears that Europe exported were to Russia. Among the most affected countries are Finland, Poland, Germany, France, Austria, the Netherlands. According to the calculations of the FCS, due to the imposed embargo, foreign countries lose about $ 8.3 billion every year, ”the analyst concluded.