Latest figures from Eurostat show that total Eu agri-food exports to third countries increased by 2,3% from august 2014 to february 2015 compared to the same period the previous year, although some members states fared much better than others.
On august 7th, 2014, Russia banned imports on fruit, vegetable, meat, fish, milk and diary products from EU. Despite losing one of its most important market, the EU has seen an overall increase in foreign sales to the country. Meanwhile Russia could extend its ban of Western foods products, including diary items,when they were scheduled to end. Indeed, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich told, last month, that he hopes additional funds will be directed towards Russian agriculture so that he could be self sufficient in meat, fruit and vegetables by 2020, and self sufficient in milk production by 2025 at the latest. On the other hand, the European Union is now saying it might end its own sanctions of Russia until the Ukraine peace deal is fully implemented at the end of 2015.
But EU Members States and Russia are heavily economically interdependent. Also with Russia historically accounting for a third of all cheese exports from EU, many analysts were expected overall export volumes to fall down. In contrast, Dairyco, the UK dairy organization, that skimmed milk powder (SMP) exports grew in 2014 , increasing up to 59% compared to the previous year. In addition, countries such as Peru and Morocco who haven’t traditionally purchased large volumes of SMP from EU have entered the market, perhaps encouraged by lower prices. According to data from Eurostat, total agri-foods exports from EU to Russia in the first rose up by more than 2% from the starting of the ban to february 2015. In turn, Russia is actually EU’s third largest trading partner.