Moscow. November 30. Ban on the import of agricultural products from Turkey will affect only vegetables and fruits, it will come into force in a few weeks, said Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich during the meeting of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev with Deputy Prime Ministers on Monday.
“We are talking about two main groups. The first is the vegetables, including tomatoes, and other vegetables. And the second is a fruit,” he said.
There will be a number other point positions, but these two groups – the core, said Deputy Prime Minister.
“However, we believe that this should avoid any further growth of prices on the domestic market. To this end, we propose to introduce a pending ban, term to define in the Ordinance that will be issued to and among customers and our sales organizations had time – just a few weeks to switch to other suppliers,” – said Dvorkovich.
In turn, first Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said that Russia will not ban manufactured goods from Turkey, but the Ministry will prepare proposals on the prohibition of manufactured goods.
He also said that Turkish construction companies from 1 January 2016 will need to obtain special permits to conclude new contracts in Russia.
“Under new contracts will need to apply to the government for special permission, on such objects and lists of employers the government will take an appropriate decision”, – said Shuvalov.
The head of the government Dmitry Medvedev said that the government of the Russian Federation of restrictive measures against Turkey can be extended.
The document concerning restrictive measures in respect of Turkey will be released from the Russian government on Monday, said the Prime Minister.
Turkish fruits and vegetables
The share of Turkish vegetables account for 20% of the volume of imports in the Russian Federation. Turkish citrus fruits occupy a quarter of imports, the agriculture Ministry reported with reference to data of the FCS. The most significant share of shipments of Turkish lemons to 90%.
The largest article of Turkish exports in the segment of vegetables and fruit is tomatoes ($281,3 million for the first 9 months of 2015), citrus ($134,9 million), apricots, cherries, sweet cherries, peaches, plums ($94,4 million) and grapes ($69.2 million).
Total imports from Turkey 2014 amounted to 4% of the total food imports. In real terms Russia imports from Turkey more than 360 thousand tons of tomatoes, 250 thousand tons of citrus, more than 100 thousand tons of grapes, about 80 thousand tons of apricots, peaches and plums, 40 thousand tons of onions and garlic, 17 thousand tons of cucumbers, and apples, pears, quince, cabbage, dates, figs, avocado, pepper, rice, ginger, starch, seasonings and other vegetable products.
Russian retailers have stated that they can replace the supply of fruit and vegetables from Turkey products from Morocco, Egypt, Israel and China, but noted that the restructuring of the supply chain will take time.
