OTTAWA, August 28./ITAR-TASS/. Canadian food exporters to Russia will lose this year more than $600 million due to the restrictions on the imports of agrarian produce, introduced by the Russian government, agriculture adviser at the Russian embassy in Ottawa Sergei Strokov said on Wednesday.

“Based on the available information, in the meat exports alone the losses will amount to $600 million, and if we take into account seafood, this figure will be higher,” he told ITAR-TASS. On August 7, in response to sanctions the West imposed on Russia over its stance on the developments in Ukraine, Moscow fully banned the imports of beef, pork, fruit and vegetables, poultry meat, fish, cheeses, milk and dairy products from the European Union countries, from Australia, Canada, Norway and the United States.

According to Strokov, before the introduction of sanctions - from January to June 2014, the exports of agricultural produce and food from Canada to Russia reached some $370 million. “This is almost half of the total Canadian exports to Russia’s market. The animal breeding sector traditionally accounted for the largest share - $285 million. Canadian farmers supplied a total of 82,000 tonnes of pork to Russia during the six months of the year,” he said. Over the same period, Canada exported to Russia seafood worth $60 million, including shrimp (10,000 tonnes) that accounted for $43 million.

“It is worth noting that Canadian businesses are still interested in the Russian market, waiting for the sanctions cancelling and losing no hope to work in Russia and with Russian companies,” Strokov said. He added, in particular, that not long before the introduction of restrictive measures by Russia, Canadian businessmen raised the issue of creating joint ventures with Russia for the catch of snow crab in the Barents Sea.

“We know that Canadians intend to make the corresponding proposal to the Russian side at a meeting of the International Fisheries Organisation in Northwest Atlantic that will be held in Portugal in late September,” the Russian official said. “Canadian businesses are opposed to the position of the country’s leadership towards Russia and want to preserve good partnership relations with us, in order not to lose the Russian market,” Strokov said.