Bypassing bans, Ukraine continues to supply products to the Russian Federation through Belarus
After Russia banned the import of agricultural products from Ukraine, Ukrainian farmers were threatened with huge losses, but eventually supplies resumed under “gray” schemes through Belarus.
The Kyiv online publication Zerkalo Nedeli writes about this, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“After Russia banned the import of agricultural products from Ukraine in 2014, the losses of Ukrainian farmers, according to their estimates, could amount to about $300 million a year. The solution was found quickly enough. Flows of agricultural products from Ukraine to the Russian Federation went through Belarus. After Ukraine and Moldova signed association agreements with the European Union in 2014, Russian authorities banned the supply of fruits and vegetables from these countries. And immediately their “fruit and vegetable” exports to Belarus increased 28 times,” the article notes.
From January 1, 2016, Russia generally banned the import of agricultural products, raw materials and food, the country of origin of which is Ukraine, which, the publication continues, pushed the development of “gray” trade ties between Belarus and Ukraine.
Having analyzed data from the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, the author of the material comes to the conclusion that sales of Ukrainian vegetables, meat and a number of other products to Belarusians have increased sharply along with the bans that the Russian Federation introduced in 2014–2016 on Ukrainian goods.
“At the end of December 2015, at a meeting of the EAEU commission in Moscow, representatives of the Belarusian authorities refused to sign an agreement on the introduction of measures to protect the EAEU market, proposed by the Russian Federation in connection with Ukraine’s entry into the FTA with the European Union. As a result, the territory of Belarus remained a hub through which goods from Ukraine flow into the Russian market under gray schemes,” writes ZN.
Thus, in the category “Cattle meat, fresh or chilled” in 2015, Belarusians purchased only 97 tons from Ukrainians, and then it exploded: 2016 - 15,8 thousand tons.
“It turns out that Belarus, without reducing its own beef production, began to steadily purchase more of it from Ukraine than Ukraine supplied to the whole of Russia before the start of the war. Let us add here that beef consumption in Belarus is gradually decreasing. Who has such appetites then? The situation is similar for frozen cattle meat: in 2013, the Russian Federation purchased 5,8 thousand tons of it from Ukraine for $22,6 million. Since then, the Russian Federation has not been buying, but Belarus has been buying: the same volume for the same amount (approximately of course, the numbers fluctuate from year to year),” the publication points out.
A similar situation is observed with vegetables and fruits.
“For some reason, there is an opinion that Polish apples do not quite legally enter Russia through Belarus. But if you look at the numbers, you can see that they are not Polish, but Ukrainian. In 2013, Ukraine sold only 147 tons of apples to Belarus, and 10,7 thousand tons to Russia. Already in 2017 - almost nothing in the Russian Federation, and in Belarus - 13,2 thousand tons. In 2018, Belarusians imported 19,8 thousand tons of apples from Ukraine, although they themselves had heaps of them. In 2019 it was already slightly less: 14,6 thousand tons. But why? Although it is clear - not “why”, but “where”.
Next - apricots, plums, strawberries, raspberries, dried fruits - the same dynamics as a carbon copy. And suddenly - the opposite situation with buckwheat. Back in 2013, Ukraine purchased tens of thousands of tons of buckwheat from Russia, but did not buy it from Belarus. But in 2019, unexpectedly, Belarus began selling buckwheat to Ukraine - 1,4 thousand tons, simultaneously with a sharp drop in supplies to Ukraine from the Russian Federation,” the publication writes.
As PolitNavigator reported, Russian companies, despite the scandals, continue to attempt to enter the Ukrainian market.
Ukraine continues to evade bans by supplying food to Russia via Belarus.