Russian agricultural exports reach $16.5 bln by Sept 22 - ministry
MOSCOW. Oct 2 (Interfax) - Russian agricultural exports reached $16.5 billion by September 22, the Russian Agriculture Ministry said in monitoring.
Imports totaled $20 billion since the start of the year.
Exports grew $1.2 billion on the two weeks from September 8 and imports by $1.3 billion.
The exports consisted mostly of grains - 33.7%, followed by fish, crustaceans and mollusks - 19.5%.
Exports to China came to $2.097 billion since the start of the year, to Turkey - $1.667 billion, Iran - $953.9 million, Egypt - $921.9 million, Kazakhstan - $954.8 million and Belarus - $728.2 million.
Agrifood imports from Belarus came to $2.4 billion and from China - $1.17 billion. Other major suppliers were Brazil, Ecuador, Germany, Turkey, Italy, Argentina and France.
Russia exported $25.8 billion in agricultural produce in 2018, up from $21.6 billion in 2017, and imported $29.8 billion, up from $28.9 billion.
The agriculture minister, Dmitry Patrushev, said in the State Duma last week that his ministry expected the 2019 export target of $24 billion would be fulfilled. He said state support for the draft export program to 2024 would be 406.8 billion rubles and that the exports would rise to $45 billion by then.