Trade turnover in agricultural products between Russian and South Africa over 10 months increases almost 30% to $530 million - Ministry of Agriculture

MOSCOW. Nov 28 (Interfax) - Turnover in agricultural products between Russia and South Africa for the first ten months of this year totaled $530 million, which is almost 30% more than in the same period last year, Deputy Minister of Agriculture Sergei Levin said at a plenary meeting as part of a business mission of Russian agricultural product exporters in South Africa, organized by the Agroexport center and the Russian Ministry of Agriculture.

At the same time, Russian exports to South Africa almost doubled, he noted. The bulk of the shipments is wheat. "Russia is the leading exporter of wheat on the world market, and we are interested in increasing shipments to the South African market," the deputy minister said. At the same time, Russian companies are interested in exporting meat products. They have significant export potential, which can be realized with the opening of access to the South African market. "We count on the assistance of the South African side in resolving this issue in the near future," Levin said.

The deputy minister said that 72% of the trade turnover between the countries is made up of shipments of South African food products to Russia. Imports of agricultural products from South Africa to Russia this year increased another 15%, mainly due to citrus fruits, pears, apples, and wine.

As reported in the review prepared by Agroexport prior to the business mission, in 2022 the trade turnover in agricultural products between the two countries increased 30.3% to $488.1 million, with the share of exports from Russia totaling only $98.7 million.

The head of the Agroexport center, Dmitry Krasnov, drew attention to this imbalance in his speech. However, according to his forecast, the expansion of shipments will increase the value of agricultural product exports from Russia to South Africa to $400 million per year.

"We see a completely obvious imbalance in terms of exports of Russian products to South Africa. This suggests that we have very serious work to do," he said, noting at the same time that the trade dynamics are good this year.

"Last year we increased wheat shipments to South Africa. As for 2023, today we have already supplied more wheat than in all of last year, and this figure has exceeded 500,000 tonnes. Russia has enormous potential in this regard," Krasnov said.

He also believes that shipments of fish can be significantly increased. "Cooperation can be seriously expanded as Russia is number one in the global frozen fish market. Last year, our exports were worth $2.7 billion," he said.

There are also prospects for exporting oil and fat products, which are not yet supplied to South Africa.

As for the potential for supplying livestock products, he said that this depends on how quickly existing restrictions are lifted and access to the South African market is achieved.