Turkey's blockade of Russia-Syria trade could harm fruit and veg exports
Russia has stated that Turkish cargo heading for the country could now be stopped altogether.
This move from Russia has yet to penetrate international consciousness - most observers are still focusing on Syria shooting down of a Turkish spy plane with Russian made cannons, on June 22nd.
Just six days after this the Russian food safety and quarantine service, Rosselkhoznadzor (RSN) issued an announcement claiming 33 violations of quarantine regulations had been uncovered in relation to Turkish exports. Allegedly the detection of these, relating to American white moth and Western flower thrip, took place over the previous six months.
RSN said it had "appealed to the General Directorate of Protection and Control of the Turkish Ministry of Food Agriculture and Livestock to take urgent measures to ensure full compliance with Russian and international phytosanitary requirements for the regulated supply of Turkish goods to Russia."
After this there was a warning of a trade embargo. This could be very detrimental to Turkey's agriculture sector. Exports of all goods, including fresh produce items such as strawberries, pomegranates, cherries, tomatoes and peppers, to Russia have reached a value of around $2.6 billion up to May, with the possibility of hitting $6.2 billion by the year's end - if allowed to continue unhindered.
Russia is the third most import export market for Turkey, behind Germany and the UK and equal to Italy. 20% of these exports are made of up fruits and vegetables. For some fresh items Russia is Turkey's biggest customer.
Russian Customs figures show that this March imports of Turkish tomatoes hit a quarterly record of 97,295 tonnes, worth $90.8 million. At this rate, the trade is 4% better than last year by volume, though lower tomato prices have cut the value by about 13% compared to the first quarter of 2011.
Alexei Alekseyenko, a spokesman for RSN, said that for the time being no action to impose the quarantine has been taken beyond the warning to the Turks to clean up their act and get rid of the American infestation. RSN says that since June 28 the Turks haven’t had time to reply to the Russian demarche.
Russia, it is believed, is not dependant on Turkey for the supply of such goods - it can easily switch to purchasing from a Central Asia destination, or the Caucasus.
Source: businessinsider.com