HELSINKI, August 2. /TASS/. The Finnish companies making food products that came under Russia’s food embargo four years ago, hope to return to the Russian market, Esa Wrang, head of the Food from Finland program told TASS.

He added that the companies would like to return even though they have found new markets for their goods.

"We would like to return. We very much hope for this. We want a wider presence on the Russian market. I worked on this market for a long time and I know it well," Wrang stressed.

He stressed that the Russian market is "very significant for Finnish food products" and has "great potential."

"Fortunately, we have not withdrawn completely. This also concerns those products that came under the food embargo. There are still production sites in Russia and they invest money in them. For example, the Finnish company Atria has facilities for the production of pork products in St. Petersburg ", he noted.

"We are constantly working in Russia, making products on local sites. Of course, these are not always those products that would be imported from Finland, if there is such an opportunity," Wrang added.

Growth of exports via new markets

"Last year, Finnish food exports exceeded 1.6 bln euros, which is the same level as before the introduction of Russian food embargo. Of course, we continue exports to Russia. We still can export some types of products - for example, grain and confectionery products, spirits. Currently, Finnish exports to Russia amount to more than 100 million euros per year, but this is only a quarter of what was in the best years - before the food embargo this figure was more than 400 million euros," Wrang says.

According to him, this gap in export volume is filled by exports to other states.

"The most important market is Sweden. Besides that, we export a lot to the Baltic countries, Germany, France, Poland, to the US, and also to the Asian markets - we work with China, Japan, South Korea," he said.

"We are also opening new markets for Finnish products in the Middle East. In my opinion, the Middle East and Asia are among markets for the future," Wrang added.

Among the dairy products, which are supplied to the new markets he named butter, milk powder, including baby food, yoghurts.

"This is the largest commodity group, we also export spirits to different countries. Moreover, we supply fish, for example, we export trout to Japan. Recently, we have started to export pork to China and we have high expectations for the growth of this market segment, because that country has the biggest potential for Finnish pork. But we also export it to other Asian countries," he said.

Most of Finnish exports are not under embargo

Earlier in an interview with TASS, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development of Finland Kai Mykkanen, said that 95% of Finnish exports are not affected by the Russian counter sanctions.

"These are machines, equipment, timber industry, the remaining 5% is dairy products, foodstuffs that fall under Russia's counter-measures," the minister said.

According to his forecast, it is unlikely that Finnish export to Russia will return to the volumes of 2013, when the environment was favorable for the mutual trade.

He noted that the ruble is much weaker now and with the current prices Russian consumers simply won’t be able to buy the same volumes as before.

However, specific products, such as certain types of Finnish cheeses and yoghurts that are particularly appreciated, can be sold well in Russia [in the future when it becomes possible], he said.

Food embargo

In July 2014, the European Union and the United States imposed sanctions against Russia due to the events in Ukraine and after that repeatedly extended them. On August 7, 2014, Russia introduced a package of counter measures against the EU, the US, Australia, Canada and Norway. The so-called counter-sanctions implied a ban on imports of fruits, vegetables, dairy and meat products from these countries to Russia for the period of one year. Later, the food embargo was extended and is still in force.