Lithuania’s food exports to Russia fell nearly 6 percent

Russia-bound exports of foods of Lithuanian origin, which accounted for 22 percent of total food exports, decreased by an annual 14.2 percent to 602.6 million litas.

Year-on-year, exports of meat and meat products to Russia fell by 30.7 percent to 94.6 million litas; of milk and dairy products, by 4.4 percent to 304 million litas; of vegetables, by 8.4 percent to 613 million litas; and of fruit and nuts, by 10.6 percent to 551.1 million litas.

At the same time, exports of fish and crustaceans nearly trebled to 15.4 million litas.

Meat products of Lithuanian origin accounted for 73.3 percent of Lithuania’s total exports of these products to Russia in January through June. The share of milk and dairy products of Lithuanian origin was 88.7 percent, that of vegetables, 0.9 percent, fruit and nuts, 0.2 percent, and fish, 50.7 percent.

In terms of overall national exposure to the Russian measures, the hardest-hit countries, in relation to their value of exports, will be Lithuania and Poland, the Financial Times has reported citing data from the European Commission and Eurostat. Last year, Lithuania exported 927 million euros of products that would have been hit by this year’s ban, and Poland exported 841 million euros-worth.

Last week, Moscow imposed restrictions, for one year, on meat, vegetable and fruit, milk and milk product imports from the EU, US and some other countries that supported sanctions against Russia over its policies in Ukraine.