Russia builds up the potato exports to the countries of Middle Asia and Transcaucasia

According to information provided by the analysts of CIS fruit & vegetable business weekly "Fruit-Inform", Russia is gradually becoming the large player of the potato market. In particular, the increased exports of this product on the background of the simultaneously decreased imports in the country prove this fact.
According to "Fruit-Inform" data, in 2007 the potato imports to Russia declined 31%; at the same time Russia exported 73% as much potato. However, we should mention that Russia was still the net importer of potato, because the volumes of the imported product exceeded 17% the exported volumes.
The main reason of the increased exports of Russian potato was the increasing demand for this product in the countries of Middle Asia and Transcaucasia, where the production and storage of late potato is much more expensive than in Russia. According to evaluations done by "Fruit-Inform" experts, the exports of Russian potato to these countries doubled in 2007. The leaders of the importers were Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan; around 67% of the imports were allocated to these countries. The considerable amounts of Russian potato were also supplied to Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
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