Ready-to-eat produce makes up increasingly large proportion of Russian agricultural exports - Agroexport

MOSCOW. July 17 (Interfax) - The structure of Russia's agricultural produce exports has recently been shifting to include a high proportion of high value-added products, shipments of which are increasing rapidly, CEO of the Agroexport federal center Ilya Ilyushin said at a press conference on Thursday.

In the first half of 2025, ready-to-eat meat exports increased 15% in value terms, pasta by 23%, ice cream 40% and fish fillet 15%. Another significant category to have undergone rapid growth is livestock produce - as of July 6, exports of meat and meat by-products grew 44% to over $1 billion.

Ilyushin also said that Russia had exported over 780,000 tonnes of rapeseed oil for around $760 million in H1. In weight terms, exports grew 40% year-on-year and 1.6-fold in value terms.

Rapeseed oil exports have been growing since 2018. This year, the biggest purchasers have been China, Gulf states, several European countries and countries in North Africa. In value terms, the top three importers were China, Iran and Norway.

Ilyushin said of the growing pace of ice cream exports that they had increased 13% YoY to almost 8,000 tonnes in H1 2025, rising 1.4-fold in value terms to over $36 million.

The top five importers of Russian ice cream were Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Mongolia and China.

"We see significant potential for further growth in ready-to-eat produce. It makes up over 40% of global agriculture imports," Ilyushin said. "However, exports of ready-to-eat products are constrained by significant difficulties relating to the necessity of certifying produce, product positioning, promotion and so on. Moreover, the delivery of meat, dairy and fish products requires cold chain conditions."

He said that Agroexport was working closely with Russian companies to find solutions, helping them to organize their operations at every stage of the export cycle.