Russia lifted several restrictions on fresh produce imports, however importers will hardly benefit out of this

Fresh Apple

Squash

Adrian Cojocaru

Published Mar 8, 2022

Recently Rosselhoznadzor, the Russian food safety authority, announced that some of previously imposed restrictions on imports of fresh produce were partially lifted since 5 March. This will involve the following countries and products including stone and seeded fruits from the Republic of Moldova and Serbia, stone fruits and nuts from China, potatoes from Bangladesh and Egypt, apples and tomatoes from Azerbaijan, tomatoes from Armenia, tomatoes and peppers from Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, tomatoes, peppers, squash and eggplant from Turkey.

Despite these news, Moldovan exporters are skeptical that this can bring a real advantage for their business. They confirmed that the current overall instability, including accelerated depreciation of ruble, created a rush demand for various food products and few deliveries that could reach the destination were sold well. However, decreasing purchasing power will have a long-term negative impact, as majority of the population will switch to cheaper or substituent products. Moreover, because of war in Ukraine the logistics turned to be a big problem as the routes became much longer and it is expected that soon the local transportation companies will run out of ECMT permits necessary for international transportation of goods. Other big issues are related to inconvenient exchange rates, deficit of hard currency in the country and possible issues with payments in condition that 5 big Russian banks can not use SWIFT in their international operations.