MOSCOW, September 8 /TASS/. The European Union’s Nordic countries as well as the Baltic States have lost from 10% to 22% of food exports due to the Russian food embargo, a report on the economic situation in Russia suggests.
The joint report prepared by the Russian Academy of National Economy and State Service; the Gaidar Institute and the All-Russian Academy of Foreign Trade (VAFT) revealed that Finland had suffered the biggest losses from the Russian food embargo on EU agricultural products: Finnish food exports have dropped by 24.5% over the two years of Russian counter-sanctions given that Finland used to export almost 20.9% of its food to Russia. Norwegian exports to foreign countries also dwindled by 11.3%, including 10.1% due to the loss of the Russian market.
Lithuania saw a huge decline in food exports, the biggest among the three Baltic States, largely (20.7%) due to the Russian counter sanctions. Latvia lost 21.5% of food exports, of which 11.5% were due to the Russian food embargo. Estonia’s foreign exports dropped by 22%, of which only 12.2% were due to the Russian sanctions.
Poland lost 4.8% of foreign exports because of the Russian food ban.
However, most countries, which fell under the Russian food embargo, did not cut their food exports and compensated the loss of the Russian market by increasing supplies to other countries.
In August 2014, Russia restricted food imports from a number of countries - the United States, the European Union, Canada, Australia and Norway - which had imposed sanctions on it over the Russian policies in Ukraine and Crimea’s reunification with Russia: the United States, the European Union, Canada, Australia and Norway. The banned foods included meat, sausages, fish, seafood, vegetables, fruit and dairy products. Later, Russia added Albania, Montenegro, Iceland and Lichtenstein to its sanctions list. In August 2016, Russia extended its food embargo until the end of 2017.