Photo from UNIAN
Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Yaroslav Krasnopolskiy reports that Ukraine has been boosting farm produce exports onto Asian markets amid a continuous drop in supplies to Russia whose share in Ukraine's agricultural exports shrank to 2.2% in January-October from 6.7% a year ago.
"Amid a sharp reduction in shipments of Ukrainian produce to the Russian Federation, Ukraine has been boosting its exports to Asia. Russia accounts for little more than 2% of [Ukraine's] total exports, "Krasnopolskiy said in parliament.
At the same time, Asian countries account for 47% of Ukrainian exports of agricultural products, and the share of the EU countries is 26.4%.
"[Russia's] share in exports of agricultural and food products decreased from 6.7% in the ten months of 2014 to 2.2% over the same period in 2015. Thus, we see that Ukrainian businesses are preparing for a possible embargo to be introduced by Russia," Krasnopolskiy said.
He stated exports to Russia in absolute terms amounted to $253 million in the ten months [of 2015], as compared to $983 million in export proceeds in 2014. Shipments of milk, eggs, poultry, cereals, oilseeds, sugar and confectionery to Russia have been halted.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said that Ukraine could lose up to $600 million in 2016 due to the Russian embargo.
At the same time, the Ukrainian Agrarian Ministry assures that Russia's policy will not affect the Ukrainian agricultural sector, adding that Ukraine's exports of agricultural products are focused on Asian, African and EU countries.
Russia has repeatedly stated that if an agreement on a free trade area between Ukraine and the EU enters into force, Moscow will be forced to impose an embargo on Ukrainian imports. Russia's Economic Development Minister Alexey Ulyukayev said that the Russian government had decided to ban export from Ukraine starting from January 1, 2016.
Ukraine said it would respond with retaliatory measures, stressing that the EU and Ukraine would not postpone the introduction of DCFTA [Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area], which is taking effect from January 1, 2016, nor would it amend the wording of the Association Agreement with the EU.