Russia boosting agricultural exports to UAE, but potential is significantly higher - trade rep
MOSCOW. Nov 24 (Interfax) - Russia has recently been ramping up exports of agricultural products to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), but the potential of supplies is significantly higher, Andrey Terekhin, Russia's trade representative in the UAE, said at a seminar titled "Prospective markets: regional peculiarities in export supplies of agricultural products", organized by the Russian Agriculture Ministry, its Agroexport center and the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO).
"In the last half year alone, the volume of our food exports here [to the UAE] has increased more than three times. This speaks to considerable realized opportunities, but even more so - to considerable prospects," he said at the seminar.
Among the areas of Russian exports to the UAE that require further development, "food is practically at the top of the list," Terekhin said. "This is primarily due to the fact that the potential of our exports has not yet been realized. It so happens that our certain gains in this market have been lost over time, including by regulating the domestic market. But it is known that once you leave the market, it is very difficult to restore your position in it," the trade representative said.
Nevertheless, he said that Russian positions in the UAE food market have begun to recover, "and this year they are quite stable".
Agroexport told Interfax that at the end of January-October this year, exports of agricultural products from Russia to the UAE quadrupled to 732,200 tons compared with 184,100 tonnes in 2022. During this period, wheat exports grew 6.2 times, deliveries of frozen fish - by 78%, barley shipments by 2.2 times, dried lentils - 4 times.
Speaking about the products that are in demand in the UAE market, Terekhin said that Russian exporters "still have a large window of opportunity in terms of supplying grain and leguminous crops." "Unfortunately, the idea of creating a hub for Russian grain in the Emirates has not been realized, although it was worked on for a long time. Here purely technical aspects came into play - it is often more profitable for our exporters to bring grain to East African countries in small batches than to bring it to the Emirates, place it and then send it to other countries. But exporters still think about this topic and think seriously," he said, noting that "such a mechanism makes sense."
Grain legumes, primarily chickpeas and lentils, are in great demand on the UAE market, Terekhin said.
Russia has potential for deliveries of meat products, but they are down this year compared to last year, he said. "There are also good opportunities for exports of dairy products, although the market here is tough and competitive," he said.
Russia should maintain positions in supply of oil and fat products, which are very much in demand in the UAE market, including as a product for further processing and packaging. "There were projects to supply oil in bulk for further deodorization, packing and packaging. So far they have not materialized, but there is definitely demand for this product," Terekhin said.