Lithuanian ambassador in Moscow: Russia seeks diversification of food imports

“Russia’s top authorities emphasize the diversification of imports from other countries and consumption of local products. We could see this before (the embargo was imposed),” Renatas Norkus said during a meeting of the business council for economic and trade cooperation with Russia at the Lithuanian Industrialists’ Confederation.

Russia’s authorities want to replace imports of such products as poultry and pork with locally-made products, the ambassador said, noting that Argentina has already announced that it may become the biggest meat exporter to Russia.

“Food prices (in Russia) have already risen by 5-6 percent and will rise further. We are starting to see a shortage of raw food. The relaxing of sanctions for individual (product) categories shows this,” he said.

According to the ambassador, Russia is now actively encouraging imports from countries that are not subject to the embargo, such as Turkey, Argentina, Kazakhstan, China, Uruguay and others.

Norkus expects that the real situation in Russia and consequences of the embargo will be clearer within four to six weeks, because currently the country still has sufficient reserves of raw food and food products.

In early August, Moscow imposed a one-year ban on agricultural and food product imports from the EU, US and other Western countries.