A rapid development of the greenhouse business in Russia has led to the replacement of a significant part of imports and forced Russia to enter on foreign markets.
Russia became a net exporter of cucumbers in the first four months of 2020 when imports of greenhouse vegetables are traditionally high! The import of greenhouse tomatoes continued to decline rapidly, and their exports began to develop for the first time. Russia remained a net importer of greenhouse tomatoes, but the volume of imports decreased by 17% over this period.
“Perhaps the most striking news is the systemic exports of greenhouse cucumbers and the first ever exports of Russian greenhouse tomatoes to Poland in the first four months of 2021. At the same time, Poland is one of the main exporters of greenhouse vegetables in the European Union,” Andriy Yarmak, economist at the Investments Centre of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said.
According to trade statistics, Russia exported 579 tons of fresh cucumbers to Poland in January-April 2021, which made this EU country the second largest market for Russian greenhouses after Belarus, if we do not take into account the supply of vegetables to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, where Ukrainian products are not supplied. Also, Russia became one of the five largest suppliers of cucumbers to the Polish market during this period.
An article on east-fruit.com stresses that it is notable that despite the ban on the supply of all food products from the EU and Ukraine to Russia, including vegetables and fruits, the European Union and Ukraine did not prohibit the supply of Russian food to the EU and Ukraine. Thus, Russia is currently protecting its market from fruits and vegetables from the EU and at the same time uses the opportunity to export its goods to this market.