From February to April 2022, FCS did not disclose a single fact regarding the import of sanctioned products into Russia, including food. This was reported to socialbites.ca in the press service of the FCS.
“From February to April 2022, FCS does not record the facts of imports of sanctioned products into the country. In recent years, there has been a general trend towards a decrease in the volume of imports to Russia. This was facilitated by measures to counter the import of sanctioned goods – anti-smuggling measures implemented by the FCS and other supervisory authorities, ”explained the press service of the FCS.
Also, according to representatives of the ministry, the main part of sanctioned products was imported into the territory of Russia from Belarus, which imposed restrictions on retaliation for the unfriendly actions of the European Union.
“Thus, the main corridor for imports of sanctioned products was blocked,” FCS said.
Rosselkhoznadzor provided statistics on this from January to the end of April 2022. The department recorded a significant decrease in the volume of sanctions imports – dozens of times over last year. However, Rosselkhoznadzor representatives did not specify in which months the sanctioned products were detected, noting the general trend.
“From January 1 to April 27, 2021, Rosselkhoznadzor registered 34.9 tons of livestock and 1.5 thousand tons of crop products illegally imported into Russia. For the same period in 2022 – 1.7 tons of livestock and 373 tons of crop production, respectively,” he said.
The ministry also associated this with the effective work of the state in the fight against smuggling.
“The statistics are about the decrease in the number of attempts to bring contraband products to Russia. This is happening against the backdrop of effective government measures to prevent smuggling,” said the press service of Rosselkhoznadzor.
As a result, Russia stopped destroying sanctioned products. last thing Message About this on the website of Rosselkhoznadzor dated February 24. It refers to the destruction of 306.8 kg of fresh apples of unknown origin, which occurred on February 22 in the Chuvash Republic. The fruits were destroyed by “mechanical means”. Initially, the department established a set of sanctions on the territory of a shopping complex owned by one of the individual entrepreneurs. The Office of the Chuvash Republic of Rosselkhoznadzor and the Ulyanovsk Region could not determine the origin of the apples due to the absence of marking labels on the packaging. Rosselkhoznadzor said in a statement that the boxes showed traces of their failure.
In 2015, a law came into force requiring the destruction of sanctioned products. Prior to that, a food embargo was imposed by Russia in 2014 in response to Western sanctions. As a result, the import of many types of products from the USA, EU, Canada, Australia, Norway was banned. The destruction of sanctions has been broadcast. Various methods were used for this. For example, a batch of vegetables was filled with denatured alcohol or chlorine and thrown into the trash. If there were too many boxes, they would be trucked to landfills and crushed by bulldozers and buried. The meat was burned. It can not be buried according to sanitary rules.
Stopped imports after counter-sanctions
“Since the entry into force of the counter-sanctions, we observe a trend towards halting the import of sanctioned products. Polish apples, Scandinavian fish or Ukrainian salt leaked into our market via Belarus.
But now, with the introduction of logistical restrictions and mutual sanctions between the European Union and the Republic of Belarus, there are practically no sanctioned products in Russia,” said Dmitry Leonov, Deputy Chairman of the Board of RusProdSoyuz Association.
Oleg Shibanov, Director of the SKOLKOVO-NES Financial Center, confirmed that in 2022 there is a big problem with logistics.
After February 2022, logistics chains were seriously disrupted. This applies not only to large companies, but also to transport carried out by citizens or small companies. The gradual withdrawal or freeze of operations of foreign companies in the Russian economy similarly affected many carriers. It will take some time to rebuild these supply chains. “Therefore, it is not worth hoping that goods sanctioned under the old regime will be imported,” he said.
According to economists, stopping the import of sanctioned products will not affect the supply of the domestic market.
“Statistics show that the volume of imported sanctions has always been insignificant. In addition, there are many alternative product sources, especially in Latin America and Asia. Most importantly, the range of domestic production is expanding (we can basically supply the country with the basic products ourselves). The latest example is high-quality beef and Russian lamb, which has also started to be produced in Russia,” he said.
Source: Gazeta
Barbara Dickson is a seasoned writer for “Social Bites”. She keeps readers informed on the latest news and trends, providing in-depth coverage and analysis on a variety of topics.