It is currently estimated that the Russian embargo is costing around 200 million euros in Italian exports alone. This represents lost revenue from trade in food and agricultural produce such as fruit and veg, fresh and cured meats, cheese and dairy products. Furthermore this situation, along with the plethora of non-Italian imports entering Russia from countries outside the EU, will cause long-term damage to the image of Italian products on the Russian market. Among the hardest hit are Italy’s two most prestigious cheese varieties, parmigiano reggiano and grana padano.
The president of the Consortium of parmigiano reggiano, Giuseppe Alai, has looked at the breakdown for 2013 and estimates that around 10,800 products are currently at risk, representing around 5.8 million euros in turnover.