According to Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, Alexander Tkachev, extending the list of countries covered by the food embargo won’t affect the Russian food market.
"I am sure that the expansion of the list of countries won’t have a material impact on the balance of the internal market. The imports will be compensated for by the growth of domestic production and imports from other countries," he added.
The minister also stressed that the Ministry of Agriculture carried out an analysis of import flows before the order of the Russian government about adding some countries to the list. "So the share of deliveries of products is negligible from Albania, Montenegro, Iceland and Liechtenstein according to the approved list. It is about 5%,’’ Interfax cites him.
Speaking about Ukraine, Tkachev reminded that a ban on imports of certain agricultural products from that country can enter into force only if the Ukrainian authorities use the economic part of the Association Agreement with the European Union. According to it, in the case of the entry into force of this ban, Russians won’t remain without lard.
"The thing is that Ukraine does not supply lard to Russia, we import just fresh-frozen pork. And the proportion of the country's total supply of pork to our market is only about 4%. These volumes can be replaced by domestic producers, or from other countries such as Brazil, China and Chile," the head of the Russian Ministry of Agriculture concluded.