September 7 2007, 08:51

Russia may ban imports of Polish frozen vegetables, berries and mushrooms

Poland and Russia have been negotiating in the attempt to regulate the supplies of Polish fruit&vegetable and meat products on Russian market; but they do not achieve any positive results but even deteriorate the trade conflict. Many EU countries flatly call it political conflict. Russian information agencies informed yesterday that now Russia is considering the possibility to fully ban supplies of not only fresh fruits and vegetables, but also frozen fruit&vegetable products.

To the opinion of the specialists of CIS produce business periodical, "Agrooglyad: Fruits and Vegetables" weekly, the possible ban may severely affect the fruit&vegetable production industry of Poland, because a considerable part of frozen vegetables, berries and mushrooms of Polish origin is exported to Russia. According to estimations of "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" specialists, around 60% of the consumed frozen vegetables are supplied by Polish companies to Russia. Moreover, a significant part of frozen vegetables, berries and mushrooms under Russian brands is actually produced in Poland and only packed in Russia. So the experts estimate Polish share of the Russian market of flash frozen fruits&vegetables to total not less than 80%.

Hortex is the largest supplier of Polish frozen products; for several years this company has been considering the plans to construct own plant on the territory of Russian Federation. To the opinion of Andriy Yarmak, the Manager of "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" project, if Russia bans the supplies of Polish frozen products to Russia, Hortex will probably reconsider the plans to construct the plant: the purchase of the needed volumes of raw materials will be a very difficult task on Russian market. That's why Hortex will have not only to construct the plant but also to develop own production of raw materials. This step will require huge capital assets; it will significantly increase the risks of such investments. At the same time, to the opinion of A. Yarmak, Russian actions may encourage Hortex to construct such plant in Ukraine where the raw material problems are not so acute. The company will be able to supply products from Ukraine to Russian market on free trade basis.

You can find out the details of the perspective development of Russian market, production and processing of fruits and vegetables in Russian Federation from the presentations made by the leading experts of fruit&vegetable industry during the second international conference "Fruits&Vegetable Business of Russia 2007" to be held October 23rd-25th 2007 on the territory of "Expocenter" in Moscow. If registered and paid for participation until September 10th, the company may save 1,750 RUR per each representative. We'd like to emphasize that the national agricultural producers have the additional discounts!