Russian food exports broke records in 2020

RUSSIA / FSU POLITICS - In Brief 12 Mar 2021 by Alex Teddy

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On March 9 RBC published an Agriculture Ministry report on this. It showed that the country exported USD 30.7 billion of comestibles. That is 20% up YoY. That was 79 million tons. The major foodstuffs exported are grain, meat, fish, vegetables and dairy products. In 2020 there was a bumper harvest. Global warming is helping this.Russia imported USD 29.7 billion of food. Therefore Russia's trade balance on food is only slightly positive. Grain is the single biggest export. It is over 50% of the tonnage sold abroad and accounts for around 33% of earnings.Meat exports rose a whopping 49%. This garnered USD 900 million. Factory farming is increasing rapidly, and China is the main market.13% of food sales are to China, 10% to Turkey and 7% to Kazakhstan. Russia sells food to 150 countries.Putin has emphasized upgrading agriculture. This policy is finally coming to fruition. The government wants to attain food security and not to be reliant on imports that could be cut off.For 20 years the Kremlin's economic mantra has been: diversify. Russia does not want to be over-reliant on hydrocarbon exports. Russia's agricultural potential is huge given its vast landmass. Half the territory is infertile due to climatic reasons. But that still leaves enormous space for farming. With cheap labor, cheap energy and lax regulation, Russia should be achieving far more in agriculture. In 2014 Russia forbade food imports from the EU. That was a riposte to EU sanctions. Russia's import substitution policy is at last succeeding. The government aims to reduce food imports 50% by 2024. That target is unlikely to be attained.Experts expect food exports to increase only slowly. The government has r...