Since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the increasingly uncertain situation has affected the world at various levels. In August 2019, Russia temporarily suspended the import of top fruit and stone fruit from China. At present, Russia's resumption of importing Chinese apples is definitely good news for China's apple industry.
China is the largest apple producer in the world, and the total annual output has been maintained at more than 40 million tons in recent years. At the same time, China is also one of the important apple exporters. Since 2010, the annual export volume has been fluctuating around 1 million tons. Russia is the world's largest apple importer. In recent years, the total amount of imported apples has been maintained at a high level of around 0.8 - 1 million tons. Since the resumption of the apple trade between China and Russia it has already achieved an annual trade volume of more than 100,000 tons.
Before 2019, China had occupied a large share of Russia's imported apple market. In 2018, China exported 128,900 tons of apples to Russia, ranking second in terms of export volume, accounting for 14.8% of Russia's total imports. In the same year, China’s total apple export volume was about 1.118 million tons, which means that apples exported to Russia accounted for 11.5% of the total export volume, (data from the official website of the General Administration of Customs).
After Russia issued a "ban" on apple imports from Poland and other European countries in 2014, apart from China, Russia's imported apples have been mainly from Moldova, Serbia and Azerbaijan. Moldovan apples accounted for 28.3% of Russia's total apple imports in 2018, ranking first. Serbian apples accounted for 14.5%, and Azerbaijan accounted for 9.5%, ranking third and fourth respectively. Which is to say that, after Russia resumes importing Chinese apples, Moldova, Serbia, and Azerbaijan will be their main competitors.
Source: Yinongkantianxia