Russia and China will resume talks on lifting restrictions on the supply of agro-industrial products, Russian trade representative to China Alexei Gruzdev said.

As a reminder, since 1976, China has not purchased wheat from Russia due to contamination with dwarf bunt, despite the fact that the Asian country experienced a shortage of this product. In 2006, negotiations to lift the embargo began for the first time, and 9 years later, Chinese authorities gave permission to purchase in 4 regions of Western Siberia, in 2018 - in three more.

Last year, China lifted the ban on imports of Russian soybeans and barley, although the latter has still failed to obtain a phytosanitary certificate.

According to experts, the volume of imports to China immediately disturbs the global balance. For example, when China buys more corn or oilseeds, it leads to their deficit in the global market.

For example, experts explain the rise in the price of wheat from Russia by the fact that China began to import more corn in 2020. These purchases supported prices for all grains in the world, including Black Sea wheat.

Russian exports of food and agricultural products to China have been growing steadily since 2010. In 2016, China became the second largest importer of Russian agro-industrial products. At that time, revenues amounted to approximately $1.6 billion.

Three years later, it exceeded 3.14 billion dollars. Based on the results of this year, a new record cannot be ruled out. In the first 10 months of 2020, products worth 3.2 billion dollars have already been sold.

The range of agro-industrial products which China buys differs significantly. For example, Egypt, which is the leader among Russian importers of agricultural products, mainly buys grains. China mostly buys fish, fish meal, crustaceans and shellfish, soybeans, rapeseed and rapeseed oil.

Also the supply of meat has increased several times since last year. Thus, this year chicken meat was sold for 230 million dollars.

Made in Russia // Made in Russia

Author: Ksenia Gustova