Turkey, Latin America seen as main winners from Russia's food import bans

Banvit Bandirma Vitaminli Yem Sanayi AS

08/08/2014 14:53

* Russia imposes year-long ban on EU, US food imports 
    * Turkish traders eye doubling of fruit, veg sales to Russia 
    * Russia eyes meat, milk imports from Latin America 
 
    By Polina Devitt and Ceyda Caglayan 
    MOSCOW/ISTANBUL, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Turkey and Latin American 
countries such as Brazil look likely to emerge as key winners 
from Russia's decision to ban most European Union and U.S. food 
imports in retaliation for Western sanctions over Moscow's role 
in Ukraine. 
    Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced the 
one-year ban on Thursday on all meat, fish, dairy, fruit and 
vegetables from the United States, the EU's 28 member states, 
non-EU member Norway - a major exporter of salmon - Canada and 
Australia.  ID:nL6N0QC5X3   ID:nL6N0QE32E  
    Russia has become the world's biggest consumer of EU fruit 
and vegetables by far, the second biggest buyer of U.S. poultry 
and a major global consumer of fish, meat and dairy products, so 
the ban opens up big opportunities for other countries. 
    Russia's Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance Service 
(VPSS) said on Friday it was holding meetings with food 
importers to discuss supplies from the new markets. 
    "We are having a meeting today with Turkey, which expressed 
willingness to increase supplies of vegetables and fruit," a 
spokeswoman Yulya Trofimova said. 
    "Latin America - Brazil, Peru - are ready to supply 
substantial volumes of meat. Brazil and Chile want to supply 
more milk and dairy products, Ecuador wants to supply  shellfish 
and Peru and Chile - fish," she added. 
    Russians have taken to imported food with gusto since the 
fall of the Soviet Union, with Western-style supermarkets 
crammed with products from all over the world replacing the 
drab, often empty state-run stores of communist times. 
    Russia spent $25.2 billion last year on imports in the 
categories affected by the new bans, nearly a third of that 
total from the countries hit by the bans.     
    Now the nascent middle class of Moscow and other cities 
could switch to Brazilian for U.S. beef and get their fish from 
Turkey and Chile instead of from Greece and Norway. 
    <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
    Details of food imports sanctioned by Russia  ID:nL6N0QD5II  
    Russia's top food suppliers/EU and U.S. 
imports ID:nL6N0QD3AH  
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> 
 
    TURKEYS FROM TURKEY 
    Officials in Turkey predicted a near-doubling of their fruit 
and vegetable exports to Russia. Turkey is currently the fifth 
biggest exporter of food to Russia, its neighbour across the 
Black Sea, with sales worth $1.68 billion last year. 
    "Turkey exports around 1.2 million tonnes of fruit and 
vegetables annually worth more than $1 billion ... There is a 
chance these exports to Russia could double," said Mustafa 
Satici, head of the West Mediterranean Exporters' Association. 
    The start of processed white meat imports to Russia from 
Turkey could have a positive impact on Turkish poultry companies 
such as Banvit  BNVT.IS  and Pinar Et  PETUN.IS , analysts said. 
    "Russia used to buy its processed white meat from the 
European Union. Over the past three to four days, Turkish firms 
have received many requests and price proposals from Russia," 
said Sait Koca, general manager of poultry company Beypilic. 
    Fish sales could also see a major boost as Russia will no 
longer be able to buy fish from EU member Greece, one of its 
leading suppliers, Turkish traders said. 
    Turkey is a NATO member and a candidate for EU membership, 
though accession talks have slowed sharply and relations with 
Brussels have cooled markedly in recent years. Ankara has given 
no indication it will join the Western sanctions against Russia. 
    Much further afield, Brazil's secretary of farm policy said 
on Thursday around 90 new meat plants in Brazil had been 
approved to export beef, chicken and pork to Russia and the huge 
farm producing nation was already working to increase exports of 
corn and soybeans sales to Russian buyers.  ID:nL2N0QD0T7  
    VPSS said some products from newly-approved Brazilian 
importers would start arriving in Russia in September, adding 
that it would consider extending the list of suppliers further. 
    "The Russian market is very interested in pork, beef, 
poultry, milk powder, butter, cheese, vegetables and fruit," 
VPSS said in a statement. 
    Chilean salmon producers said they were "prepared to satisfy 
the increase in demand in this (Russian) market". Chile has been 
also exporting fruit to Russia. 
    A Russian official familiar with the plans on banned food 
substitution, said that finding an alternative to Norwegian fish 
supply would be the toughest task. 
    "In general, there is panic only over fish. We were not 
prepared for it," said a Moscow-based seller of imported food. 
 
 (Writing by Maria Kiselyova and by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by 
Gareth Jones) 
 ((maria.kiselyova@thomsonreuters.com; +7 495 775 1242; Reuters 
Messaging:  maria.kiselyova.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: UKRAINE CRISIS/RUSSIA FOOD