Russian AgMin to prepare balances of food for possible replacement of Turkish products for govt
MOSCOW. Nov 27 (Interfax) - The Russian Agriculture Ministry is preparing balances food to present to the government, which is formulated with account of the supplies from Turkey, in order to, if needed, replace the Turkish share with products from other countries, Russian First Deputy Agriculture Minister Yevgeny Gromyko told Interfax.
"We are preparing proposals for an entire package of imported foods, in which there will be information about the requirements about our opportunities for replacing these volumes," he said, noting that there will be no concrete proposals about restrictions of this or that type of product. Conclusions will be made based on the presented balances.
Gromyko said that the ministry's work is so that if needed, domestic producers and suppliers from other countries can be ready to cover the open positions. "Our task is that people do not experience shortages when coming to the New Year's holidays. It is necessary to work in a very timely manner," he said.
Gromyko said that only yesterday proposals arrived at the Russian Agriculture Ministry from trade representative offices from 15 countries, which offered products in exchange for Turkish ones. This concerns the countries of Southeast Asia, Northern Africa. "There are even proposals from Latin America, where vegetable production on open soil is well developed," he said. "Even such a position, as green leaf lettuce, which is not grown in Russian and supplies which are reaching 4,000 tonnes, turned out covered by the morning. In addition, Turkish vegetables on the Russian market can be replaced with those of Egypt, Iran and Azerbaijan," he said.
Gromyko said that complaints concerning Turkish products have really accumulated. "We received many notification from trade, how to say, accumulated, and the anecdote about Turkish tomatoes has been told for already more than ten years," he said.