The first results of the Russian sanctions against Western food in the light of Russian-Turkish cooperation today were announced by the Russian trade representative in Ankara, Tofik Melikov. The official, in particular, reported an increase of 500% in the supply of meat and meat products from Turkey to the Russian market.
"Turkey will not join the sanctions against Russia, so attention to it from our side seriously increased. The number official bilateral contacts has increased. Since August, deliveries of fish products has almost doubled to Russia (up to $51.2 million), a more than six-fold increase in meat delivery (up to $14.4 million)," says Melikov.
During these six months seven contracts with new Turkish food exporters were signed, now Rosselkhoznadzor and the Ministry of Agriculture of Turkey are agreeing on an additional list of suppliers whose goods will have an open route to Russia. Although it is necessary to resolve a number of technical issues, the overall situation in relations between Russia and Turkey in this field is developing positively. "It is clear that the withdrawal of foreign companies from the Russian market is a chance for Turkish investors," said the trade representative of the Russian Federation in Ankara, RIA Novosti reported.
Senator Ahmed Palankoev, commenting on strengthening ties between Russia and Turkey against the background of the anti-Russian sanctions, previously stressed that there are many causes of this process, and they all lie in the area of interaction between economies, not only in the food sector. "It should be noted that Turkey generally builds its foreign policy extremely pragmatically and focused on its national interests. In this context, a very important factor is the effective development of Russian-Turkish relations, the cornerstone of which is the economy," said the senator.
According to him, a new level of cooperation between the two countries allows the mutual investment process to be enhamced. "First, of course, it is worth mentioning the Russian food market, and more than that Turkish businessmen can not only import food in Russia, but also invest in agricultural production on Russian territory. Also, we can talk about the production of building materials and consumer goods, services, those areas where Turkish business succeeds. Russia, in its turn, will more actively invest in the energy sector in Turkey, including the nuclear one, in the sphere of communications and autoindustry," Ahmet Palankoev names mutual investment opportunities.
Turkish experts, in their turn, positively assessed the opportunities presented to Turkey with the introduction to Russian of food sanctions in August. So the head of the Association of Russian-Turkish entrepreneurs, Naki Karaaslan, said that Turkey is ready to supply any food products to the markets of Russia. "The Russian market is extensive, but I think that Turkey has sufficient agricultural production to meet the needs of both the local Turkish market and the Russian one. I emphasize that we can deliver to Russia absolutely all kinds of food products, the largest volumes can be provided for chicken meat," Karaaslan added.
In this case, the economist Aydin Sezer warned that Turkish companies have to resolve many technical issues to start self supply to the Russian Federation. "Russia demands imported products to comply with very high standards. Not every product from Turkey will be able to easily enter the Russian market. The problem is that in Turkey, medium-sized and small businesses, that is, the majority of farmers are not familiar with the rules and standards imposed by Russian law . There is no control department, the quality of products intended for export is not checked. However, the experience of a bilateral control of food exports is already available: Egyptian food in Port Said is already checked by Russian experts from the relevant structures. A similar mechanism could operate in trade relations between Turkey and Russia," suggested Sezer.
