After taking the top spot among China’s oil suppliers, Russia wants to boost the Middle Kingdom’s appetite for its food and agricultural products. So far, the going has been slow.
“There are lots of economic initiatives, but actually realizing them isn’t so easy,” Alexei Gruzdev, the deputy economy minister responsible for trade, said in a recent interview. “Accessing the market and finding one’s niche is a difficult process that involves serious competition.”
Russia’s farm sector has been on a roll in recent years, powered by years of investment, good harvests and government bans on imported competition. Last year, the country topped ranks of world wheat exporters for the first time in a century.
Boosting trade with China has been a particular Kremlin priority since relations with the U.S. and EU soured over the Ukraine crisis in 2014. Falling oil prices have eroded the value of Russia’s fuel supplies — which had accounted for three-quarters of exports until recently — and the government is looking to agricultural products to help fill the gap. Overall exports to China were down 6.1 percent in the first 11 months of 2016.
Source: Hellenicshippingnews.com
