After Russia recently imposed a severe and far-reaching ban on fruit and vegetable imports from sanctioning countries, the true extent of the move is still being evaluated by produce industries throughout many parts of the world. Several key U.S. agricultural trade groups told www.freshfruitportal.com how the ban would affect growers and exporters in the country, with some asserting that the biggest losers of the ban will in fact be Russian consumers.

A Northwest Horticultural Council representative said that despite Russia not being a hugely important market for the majority of the agricultural industry, its import ban would see a considerable loss of business for exporters of a range of food items. 

"In terms of apple and pears Russia is an important market. It's not our top market by any means but overall it's in the US$20-25 million range," said vice president Mark Powers said.

"So the loss of Russia is not insignificant."

Powers also addressed the broader implications of the ban, questioning what would happen to the European supply of produce that was normally sent to Russia.

"If that fruit no longer has that destination where does it go? Conversely, if you've got other origins that aren't banned can they step in?" he asked.

"So I think the question in terms of overall impacts remains to be seen, but the direct impacts are going to be measurable and unfortunate.

"Hopefully the nations that are involved in this broader political and strategic dispute can get it sorted out and everyone can get back to their normal life."

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Powers said that overall the impact on the U.S. fresh produce industry would undoubtedly be 'significant' but counterparts across the Atlantic would be the ones who feel the full weight of the measures.

"Obviously the Europeans are going to be hit much harder than we are. Our volumes of exports to Russia are really insignificant when you compare them to Europe," he said.

"It's going to hurt them a lot more than it hurts us.

"We're talking under a percent of our crop. It's important for certain sizes and manifests and certain packers, so it will have an impact but not the kind of magnitude of EU countries that really supply that market with apples and pears."

He added that it was hard to say where the U.S. exports normally bound for Russia would end up, but said it would almost definitely be sold somewhere, be it to the domestic market or other trading nations.

Some crops hit much harder than others

A spokesperson for the Western Growers Association emphasized that the organization was 'still evaluating' the full implications of the unprecedented ban, but pointed out that Russia was far less important to the fresh fruit industry in terms of value than the tree nut sector.

"If you take fruit and the tree fruit, we're at almost US$36 million [in 2013]," said director of international trade and transportation Ken Gilliland.

"The other commodities that have heavy volumes are tree nuts – and obviously for California the key ones are almonds and pistachios. Tree nuts are looking at US$170 million plus. The vegetable side was not quite as much a little over a million dollars."

"But certainly it's going to have an impact on our growers."

Gilliland said that Russia was the 6th most important export market for U.S. pistachios and the 11th for almonds, while also being a big player for pears (3rd), apples (13th), and less so for table grapes (28th).

Like Powers, Gilliland raised concerns over increased competition for U.S. exporters in other key markets where European growers may now be sending more supply, but said it was simply too early to say how everything would pan out.

"If you're displacing all that volume that traditionally would have gone into Russia, what market are you going to now go to?" he said.

"In some cases you're talking very perishable products so there's not a lot of time. Some of them I would assume you've got time to readjust and see where you might be able to move the product.

"Also, what if there's something already in transit - how's that going to be impacted?"

Russian consumers are 'the big losers'

A United Fresh representative said that while various actors in the U.S. produce industry would be affected to varying degrees according to how heavily they relied on exports to Russia, the untold loser of the whole situation was in fact the citizens of the very country that imposed the ban.

"The real loser on this is going to be the Russian consumer because if they want to still buy that fresh product, the tree fruit, they'll probably end up having to pay more because it'll be brought in from somewhere else," said vice president for communications Ray Gilmer.

"Any time there's a loss of a supply on the fresh perishable market it means that the price is going to go up."

"Russian consumers in the long run, and not just for fruit and vegetables but for the grain and other large-scale commodities that have much greater volumes than fresh produce, that's going to impact the domestic consumer pricing far more than it's going to have an impact on U.S. producers."

Gilmer also called for a swift and amicable resolution to the economic conflict between Russia and the West, given that the situation could have potentially devastating effects on producers and exporters.

"We want the U.S. government as well as international trading partners to understand that these kind of import bans have a real impact on businesses here in the States as well as in the EU," he said.

"There's a very real impact here in this trade war, and we appreciate the politics behind it, but the economic ripple effects are being felt here at home."

In a statement on its website, the American Farm Bureau Federation also said it expected the Russian citizens to be more heavily affected by the ban than the U.S. industry.

"This is clearly a political move. It is unfortunate that the biggest losers in this will be Russian consumers, who will pay more for their food now as well as in the long run," the statement said.

"America's farmers and ranchers would have been more surprised if Russia's leaders had not announced bans and restrictions on food and agricultural imports.

"They do so regularly for seemingly small reasons and now they have to deal with sanctions imposed by our nation and others."

Photo: Jack Versloot, Flickr Creative Commons

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