Officially, the motivation is internal (serving the population and avoiding inflation), but yesterday’s statements are over Wladimir Putin atexport Agrifood appears as a further reaction to the decisions of the EU countries. “There is a need he said to mitigate the negative externalities for us citizens: Increase the production and supply of affordable, highquality food, including seafood, to the domestic market. That is the core task of this year.” However, he immediately revealed the political significance of the declaration, specifying reports Tass that the export restrictions would apply “particularly to hostile countries”.
Russia and sanctions, the 6 EU measures: stop imports of coal, banks and ships. What is planned for Italy
What consequences for Italy?
Using the classic system of announcements and delayed threats, it was former President Dmitry Medvedev who predicted a few days ago that “we will only provide food and crops to our friends (fortunately we have many, and they are not in Europe and North America ). “. In fact, it is a maneuver that Russia has been enforcing in a more or less accentuated form for several months, varying customs rules and costs with great frequency.
DIMENSIONS
The latest decisions were discussed in the Duma with Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev just the day before yesterday. In fact, from April 15 to August 31, barring extensions, it will be essentially impossible to export sunflower seed and oil, rapeseed oil and flour from Russia. Discount also for soybean meal, blocking of all logistic platforms except Kaliningrad sea checkpoint.
WHAT WILL BE MISSING
It still needs to be understood in detail which other foods will be taboo for export. Italy should not be particularly affected. Confagricoltura calculates that between January and November 2021 it imported products from the agricultural and food industry for a total of 223 million euros. In first place are compact cakes and other solid residues from the processing of vegetable oils (for animal feed) with 54 million euros (+ 43% compared to 2019), followed by wheat with 44 million euros (+ 127% compared to 2019) and dried pulses with 39 million euros euros (+ 183% compared to 2019). Russia specifies Coldiretti is the world’s largest exporter of wheat, but Italy’s dependence is limited between durum and soft wheat, accounting for just 2.3% of all wheat imported from abroad.
EXPORT BLOCK
However, the blocking of grain exports, if slightly hitting Italy, will have a strong impact on the price increase, as other countries without Russian supplies will turn to new markets and prices will rise. Even more disturbing in light of these moves by Putin is the embargo on fertilizers, of which Russia is the world’s largest producer (over 50 million tons, 15% of world production). The export ban on ammonium nitrate that was passed in February ended on April 2nd. But as recently as yesterday, there were no official announcements about the resumption of trade relations, causing great concern especially from fruit growers (who use ammonium molecules to fertilize pome and stone fruit). We can also do without your products, it’s the broader message that Russia wants to convey. In fact, the Putin government is accelerating measures to make the country more independent from other countries, with funds totaling 360.2 billion rubles.
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