Pacific Rim agricultural exports: Despite experiencing growing food shortages and price inflation at home due to the embargoes it has imposed on EU and now Ukrainian imports, the Russian government is aiming to double grain supplies to the Pacific Rim, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told the APEC-2015 Summit in Manila last month, as Moscow seeks to increase its economic influence in the region.
More than a quarter of Russia’s foreign trade takes place with the Pacific Rim countries, according to the Federal Statistic Agency (Rosstat) with trade turnover worth around $100bn between January and September, and agriculture itself around $7bn.
Grain products such as flour, starch, animal feed and past constitute the majority of its food and agricultural exports.
Trading these abroad is more advantageous than supplying the domestic market, according to Professor Svetlana Ivanova from the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics. Russia could also supply northern and northeastern China with seafood and drinking water, she added.
China’s aggregate cereal and animal feed imports increased by 24% and 70% in 2014, while Vietnam and Indonesia have also significantly increased imports of cereals and animal feed.
Russia aiming to double Pacific Rim agricultural exports by 2020
Grain harvesting in Krasnoyarsk
Source: rbth