Russia President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to prolong the embargo imposed in August 2014 on food supplies, including seafood, from several countries.
The ban was introduced on 7 August, 2014, as a response to sanctions taken by Western countries against Russia due to Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and the country’s alleged involvement in the war in the eastern part of Ukraine. The ban has since been extended several times.
At first, the embargo affected some exports from the United States, the European Union, Australia, Canada, and Norway. In 2015, it was extended to Albania, Montenegro, Iceland, Lichtenstein, and as of 1 January, 2016, Ukraine, because it supported the West’s sanctions. Over time, the list of items prohibited for import also changed. Initially, it included dairy, poultry, seafood, vegetable, and fruits. Eventually, live pigs, animal fat, and fatty oil were added to the list of items banned by Russia. In 2015, Putin ordered the destruction of all illegally imported food from banned countries.
In 2013, 40 percent of the fish imported into Russia came from Norway. After the ban was introduced, Norway's supply was replaced primarily by fish sent from Chile and the Faroe Islands, which own 20 percent and 16 percent of the Russian market for fish imports, respectively.
According to data from Russia’s Federal Agency for Fisheries, between January to October 2020, seafood imports to Russia stood at 457,800 metric tons, down 7.4 percent from the corresponding period of 2019. Those imports were worth USD 1.57 billion (EUR 1.29 billion), 9.1 percent less than in 2019.
Photo courtesy Cyacheslav Stephanishchev/Shutterstock
