Russia exported a document quantity of meals in 2020, changing into a web vendor of agricultural merchandise for the primary time because the collapse of the Soviet Union, reviews the Moscow Occasions. Based on a current report from Agroexport, which is a division of the Russian Ministry of Agriculture, producers within the nation have offered 79 million tons of agricultural merchandise resembling grains, meat, fish, greens, dairy merchandise and different merchandise to the overseas in 2020. In financial phrases, the quantity of exports jumped 20% in comparison with 2019 and amounted to 30.7 billion {dollars}. Whereas final 12 months’s meals imports amounted to $ 29.7 billion, 2020 turned out to be the primary post-Soviet 12 months that Russia has change into a web exporter of agricultural merchandise.

The geography of exports was additionally very in depth. Total, Russia equipped agricultural merchandise to 150 totally different international locations. China, which accounted for 13% of all gross sales, grew to become Russia’s largest agricultural export market, adopted by Turkey and Kazakhstan with 10% and seven% respectively, in keeping with the Agroexport report. China’s rising demand for meat has led to a document improve in meat exports, which rose 49% year-on-year to $ 900 million. Nonetheless, grains remained the principle element within the composition of Russia’s exports, as they accounted for greater than half of Russian agricultural merchandise offered overseas by weight and a 3rd of all earnings. In 2020, Russia harvested its second largest grain harvest to this point.

The Russian agricultural sector, which has had vital geopolitical, safety and financial significance because the early years of the Soviet Union, has obtained a powerful increase in recent times as certainly one of President Vladimir Putin’s major financial objectives. In 2014, the Kremlin suspended agricultural imports from the EU, which on the time accounted for greater than half of all Russian meals imports. He pushed the nation to develop nationwide options to European dairy merchandise, fruits, greens and meat.

Putin’s bold financial improvement objectives name for an extra 50% improve in Russia’s agricultural exports over the following three years. In the meantime, consultants contemplate {that a} vital improve in export volumes within the close to future is unlikely given a current hike in taxes on agricultural exports, because the Kremlin tries to keep up meals surpluses in its nation to restrict meals inflation.

By Anna Litvina