Page 50 - RusRPTMar19

7.2% decrease, which is followed by Poland ($3.3bn), Italy ($2.6bn), Turkey ($2.4bn), Germany and China ($2.2bn each). All in all, 42.5% of Ukrainian exports ($20.2bn) fell on EU countries last year. Among importers, Russia also remains the first. In 2018, imports of Russian goods to Ukraine rose by 12.3% compared with 2017 to $8.1bn. China was the second ($7.6bn), followed by Germany ($5.9bn), Belarus ($3.8bn), and Poland ($3.6bn). Total Ukrainian imports equaled $57.1bn last year, an increase of 15.2% compared with 2017, with 40% ($23.2bn) falling on EU countries.
Russia’s imports of meat and meat products plummeted by almost 58% to 800,000 tonnes over the past four years since introduction of sanctions and counter-sanctions, Sergei Dankvert, director of the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Oversight, said in an interview to Rossiya 1 channel released late on Monday. “We have interesting figures to share. Let’s take the year of 2014. We imported almost 1.9 million tonnes of all types of meat and meat products then. Now let’s have a look at the past year, and we see only 800,000 tonnes. We’ve replaced almost 1 million tonnes over the four years,” he said. “If we look at milk and dairy products, we had 1.164 million tonnes (imported in 2014), and now we have only 790,000 tonnes,” he said. He added that imports from Belarus amount to about 350,000 tonnes, and imports of dairy products and milk from all other countries amounts to about 450,000 tonnes. The reduction of imports happened simultaneously with an increase in domestic production, he added.
Trade turnover between Russia and China in January 2019 has increased by 10.8% on an annualized basis to $9.2bn, China's General Administration of Customs said in a report issued on Thursday. China's exports to Russia grew by 11.5% in the first month of 2019 and exceeded $4.3bn. Russia's exports to China also increased by 10.2% to $4.89bn. In 2018 trade turnover between Russia and China increased by 27.1% on an annualized basis to $107bn. Russia and China are hoping to grow trade turnover from $100bn in 2018 to $200bn by 2020.
From January to November, 2018 Russia’s potato export decreased by 28% and stood at $13.9mn with a total weight of 132.605 thous. tn. Russia’s import of this product was 14.7 times as much as its export. For this period the country imported 550.537 thous. tn of potato for the total amount of $204.4mn. Potato import volume and value remained almost the same as in 2017. Russia exported potato mostly to Ukraine (89.4%), but also to Azerbaijan (3.5%), Kazakhstan (3.1%), Belarus (1.9%) and other countries. Potato was imported to Russia from Egypt (62.5%), Azerbaijan (14.1%), China (11.4%), Belarus (4.9%), Pakistan (4.5%), Israel (2.3%) and other countries
50 RUSSIA Country Report March 2019 www.intellinews.com