Hopes were high after a Russian minister said protocols were prepared to lift the ban on Greek food imports, but speculation came to a grinding halt this afternoon following statements made by the two countries' leaders.

During a press conference in Moscow, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said Greece would act as a sovereign country with a right to pursue its own interests, but Russian President Vladimir Putin said no exceptions would be made for lifting the food import ban for any EU country.

Putin lamented the impacts of Russia's counter-sanctions on the Greek agriculture sector, but said "it is not our fault".

"We simply could not do otherwise, and we can not make an exception for any one country of the European Union," Putin said.

Alexis Tsipras (left) and Vladimir Putin (right)

Nonetheless, Tsipras emphasized the counter-sanctions imposed by Russia had "inflicted pain on the Greek economy".

"But we know the retaliations were a response to sanctions [against Russia], the logic of which we do not entirely share," Tsipras said.

"We openly disapproved of the sanctions. It is not an efficient solution. We think it could bring about a new Cold War between Russia and the West."

In an email, Incofruit-Hellas president George Frangistas told www.freshfruitportal.com he hoped the EU would not pursue any further sanctions, so that the Russian embargo would simply "expire on its own" on July 31.

"On the other hand as EU producers we would have liked the EU to be less inclined to sign free trade agreements with third countries," Frangistas said.

"We are not against free trade and do not request trade barriers. On the contrary we expect a level playing field but if a third country expects access to the EU market than it should reciprocate.

"Had the EU implemented such a policy we would not have felt the repercussions of the Russian embargo so severely."

He said the Russian market was extremely important for fruits like strawberries, peaches and nectarines as it represented more than 30% of volumes, while for other products like cherries and kiwifruit it was not as critical but still important.

"The closure of the Russian market is not only a severe loss in terms of market but also crucially it creates an oversupply which permeates the entire sector resulting in prices drops across Europe regardless of product," he said.

"Until 31.7.15 Greece stands to lose and estimated 95-100 thousand tons of fresh fruit valued at €75-80 million."

The Greek fruit industry leader discussed a few other factors that had impacted ties with the Russian produce market.

"The Ruble has clearly nose-dived in the past couple of months. Meanwhile the Euro has also dropped against the USD and the Ruble has somewhat stabilized," he said.

"Should the Russian market re-open today I would expect the currency situation to be partially compensated albeit definitely at a lower level than last summer.

"There is another factor against us:  the embargo has forced Russian importers to find alternatives to EU fruit. This implies new trade channels have been forged. Once the embargo is lifted I expect it will take a few years to regain our past market share."

In terms of Greece's summer crops, Frangistas said they seemed to be developing smoothly with normal-to-high volumes expected.

"The latest rains and relatively low temperatures may imply some delays for some products in some areas but at this point we have no concrete issues to report."

www.freshfruitportal.com