Russia imports 90 tonnes of butter from UAE since Oct 18 - watchdog

MOSCOW. Nov 2 (Interfax) - Russia began purchasing butter from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on October 18 and has imported 90 tonnes of the product as of November 2, the press service for the Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) said.

"Butter was not previously imported to Russia from the UAE," it said.

Butter also began to be imported from Turkey at the end of October. A total of 20 tonnes were imported between October 20 and 29.

As reported, Russia has imported a total of 112,300 tonnes of butter since the start of the year through October 29, up 9% year-on-year.

According to Rosselkhoznadzor data, there are currently 116 butter producers in the register of enterprises from third countries. A total of 97 of them from 11 countries have supplied Russia with butter.

Imports have increased amid significant price rises for butter.

Butter prices have risen 25.7% since the start of the year, Rosstat said.

As reported, the recent sharp rise in prices for butter has drawn significant attention from the authorities. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev recently held two meetings on stabilizing the situation on the food and butter markets. At the second meeting he gave instructions for daily monitoring of the food market and for exhaustive measures to be taken within two weeks to maintain stability.

Russia has proposed introducing a tariff concession for importing up to 30,000 tonnes of butter into Russia to the Eurasian Economic Commission.

The base duty on butter imports is 15%, but not less than 0.22 euros per kilogram.