May 30 2014, 10:34 Fito-Mag

Russia: apple imports up in April

Russia raised imports of apples in April 2014 compared with the previous month due to the end of the domestic season.

The majority of Russian farms finished their season in April, and wholesale companies switched over to sales of imported produce. As a result, Russia's imports went up by 20% compared with March and totaled 121,000 tons. At the same time, on a year-on-year basis, apple imports were 28% lower.

Russia's cumulative imports over the period from July 2013 to April 2014 amounted to 916,000 tons, a decrease of 19% compared with the same period of the previous season. Poland traditionally was the leader in apple exports to the Russian Federation with the share of 45% in Russia's total imports. Moldova ranked second and accounted for the share of 13%. Serbia was the third largest supplier after being just the sixth in the previous season. China ranked fourth.