BERLIN, August 07. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia's decision to give up agricultural imports from the west might cause a sensitive damage to the German economy, experts of the Federation of German Wholesale and Foreign Trade said Thursday.

“The ban on imports of agricultural products declared by Russia on Thursday will tell on all the German exporters, but the exporters of cattle meat, sausage, dairy products, vegetables, fruit, ready to eat products will be hit particularly hard because Russia is a very important market with a high purchase power,” they said.

The Russian government imposed a one-year ban on imports of beef, pork, poultry, fish, cheeses, fruit, vegetables and dairy products from Australia, Canada, the European Union, the United States and Norway, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday.

In response to Western sanctions, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Wednesday to ban for one year the imports of agricultural, raw and food products from the countries, which imposed sanctions against Russia.

The ban comes into force as of August 7.