Share of friendly nations in Russian agricultural exports reaches 87% - AgMin

MOSCOW. Dec 7 (Interfax) - The share of friendly nations in Russian agricultural exports this year reached 87%, Deputy Agriculture Minister Sergey Levin said at a strategic session titled "Russian agricultural exports 2023-2024: trends, challenges and new opportunities" in Moscow on Thursday.

The session was organized by the Agriculture Ministry's Agroexport center.

"In planning the 'Agricultural Exports' federal project, we initially oriented ourselves towards the markets of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and former Soviet region as priority ones for development of our agricultural exports. As such, we did not have to seriously change our strategy or redirect export flows. As a result, exports to friendly nations this year represented 87% of the overall volume of exports. These fast-growing food markets with dynamic economies and growing populations will be the drivers of the global food market in the coming years," he said.

The growth of agricultural shipments abroad and the opening of new markets is facilitated by the implementation of the "Agricultural Exports" federal project, Levin said. "Over the past five years, grain exports have increased by 79%, deliveries of oil and fat industry products - by almost three times, fish and seafood exports - by 33%, processed food deliveries - by 55%, shipments of meat products - 4.4 times, and deliveries of dairy products - almost 1.5 times," the deputy minister said.

In addition, wheat supplies have begun to Algeria and Saudi Arabia, pork deliveries to Vietnam, and poultry meat shipments to China and the Persian Gulf countries. "Today Russia is the leading supplier of sunflower oil to China and India, holds a leading position in the world market of rapeseed oil and frozen fish. The geography of confectionery supplies has been significantly expanded, exports of dried dairy products have been launched," he said.

At the same time, Levin emphasized that further development of exports will be associated not only with entering new markets, but also with strengthening the positions of Russian companies in those countries that have already become acquainted with Russian food products. "This will require our exporters to adapt both business processes and export products to these requirements and intensify their work in key buying countries," he said.

Pointing to the fact that that the federal project is designed for the period until 2024, Levin said that the Agriculture Ministry is at the moment already thinking about "how to maintain and develop positive trends for the period after 2024 through 2030 and beyond."