The Russian embargo on the importation of foreign foodstuffs is, from a European perspective, to be tough on the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, and Poland in particular.
Cheese from New Zealand will supplant Irish Cheese (worth €4.5 million in 2013); German meat shipped to Russia (worth €346 million in 2013) will be replaced by meat from Brazil; Dutch fruit and vegetables will now also be sourced elsewhere, along with Polish pig meat.
Moscow's actions follow the grounding of the budget airline subsidiary of Aeroflot as a result of EU sanctions over Russia's support for rebels in Ukraine.
It is understood that the Kremlin has been in talks with Belarus and Kazakhstan to block the banned western foodstuffs being exported to Russia from the two countries.
The UK won't lose out to the same extent – its biggest food and drink export last year to Russia was £17 million of frozen fish.
"There is nothing good in sanctions and it wasn’t an easy decision to take, but we had to do it," Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev said. The ban is valid from today and will last for one year.
He believes:
"our partners’ economic pragmatism will prevail over bad political decisions, and they will think before trying to frighten Russia and impose restrictions on it. And mutual trade and economic partnership will be restored in the volumes which existed before. We would have liked that to happen."
© 2014 European Supermarket Magazine –Your source for the latest retail news. Article written by Peter Donnelly
