Russia dealt a blow to the fish trade by blocking imports of some foods from Iceland, adding the major supplier of cod and mackerel to a blacklist drawn up in reaction to European and U.S. sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that Iceland, along with Albania, Liechtenstein and Montenegro, were being added to the ban because they joined European Union sanctions over Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine last year. He didn’t say when it would come into force for the four countries.
By acting against Russia, the nations made a “conscious choice, which means their readiness for retaliatory measures from our side,” Medvedev said in televised comments.
Iceland supplied 17 percent of total frozen fish imports and 22 percent of fish-fillet deliveries to Russia from January through April this year, according to an Aug. 10 report by the Analytical Center for the Government of the Russian Federation. Frozen fish imports sank 45 percent during that time from the same period last year, while fish fillets dropped 30 percent, after Russia banned supplies from Norway as part of its initial food
‘Huge Disappointment’
“This is a huge disappointment,” Iceland’s Foreign Minister Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson said in an e-mailed statement. “We’ve sought to explain our position to Russian authorities and what is at stake.”
In an effort to reduce the impact of Russia’s decision on Icelandic fishing companies, policy makers from the north Atlantic island will seek to continue the dialogue with their counterparts in Moscow, according to the statement.
Shares in HB Grandi hf, Iceland’s largest fishing company, fell by 2.6 percent in trading in Reykjavik today.
Russia will impose a ban on Ukrainian food imports if the government in Kiev implements the economic section of an EU- association accord in January, according to Medvedev.
Georgia wasn’t included in the newly barred imports even as the EU said it had joined in the sanctions regime. Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said last week his cabinet decided against taking part in the EU action, Interfax reported.
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