London Stock Exchange-listed Russian company X5 Retail Group has announced plans to source a wide range of Iranian food items in a few months' time, website Tass reported.

The story reported the company had been establishing trade relationships with exporters in the country thanks to support from the Iranian Embassy in Russia, with options for trade now open thanks to the lifting of sanctions.

"We believe that the first deliveries of products from Iran will begin this spring," an X5 representative was quoted as saying.

The story listed a large list of categories on X5's Iranian wish list, including fish and seafood, dairy products, vegetables (tomatoes, carrots, onions, garlic) and fruits (bananas, pears, quince, melon, watermelon, figs, persimmons, pomegranates, pineapples, kiwifruit, guava, avocados).

Russia is not the only country looking for Iranian produce in this new environment - Poland has also been looking for trade deals - but the country is certainly in a more pressed fruit and vegetable sourcing environment since it has banned foodstuffs from many sanctioning countries as well as Turkey.

Website Sputnik-abkhazia.ru reported Russia is now importing fruit from Latakia in Syria, the site of a Russian air base.

The story reported the Syrian fruit industry intended to send at least 34,000 metric tons (MT) to the market per month, and had already sent its first lot of lemons and oranges to Novorossiysk late last year.

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www.freshfruitportal.com/With sourcing from www.fruitnews.ru