© EPA/Brendon DlouhyA beef cow in Canada
"Based on the available information, in the meat exports alone the losses will amount to $600 million, and if we take into account seafood, this figure will be higher," he told ITAR-TASS. On August 7, in response to sanctions the West imposed on Russia over its stance on the developments in Ukraine, Moscow fully banned the imports of beef, pork, fruit and vegetables, poultry meat, fish, cheeses, milk and dairy products from the European Union countries, from Australia, Canada, Norway and the United States.
According to Strokov, before the introduction of sanctions - from January to June 2014, the exports of agricultural produce and food from Canada to Russia reached some $370 million. "This is almost half of the total Canadian exports to Russia's market. The animal breeding sector traditionally accounted for the largest share - $285 million. Canadian farmers supplied a total of 82,000 tonnes of pork to Russia during the six months of the year," he said. Over the same period, Canada exported to Russia seafood worth $60 million, including shrimp (10,000 tonnes) that accounted for $43 million.
"It is worth noting that Canadian businesses are still interested in the Russian market, waiting for the sanctions cancelling and losing no hope to work in Russia and with Russian companies," Strokov said. He added, in particular, that not long before the introduction of restrictive measures by Russia, Canadian businessmen raised the issue of creating joint ventures with Russia for the catch of snow crab in the Barents Sea.
"We know that Canadians intend to make the corresponding proposal to the Russian side at a meeting of the International Fisheries Organisation in Northwest Atlantic that will be held in Portugal in late September," the Russian official said. "Canadian businesses are opposed to the position of the country's leadership towards Russia and want to preserve good partnership relations with us, in order not to lose the Russian market," Strokov said.
and have great effect, as long as the alternate source countries, i.e. Brazil, China, etc., and countries of C. America and Africa, don't get threatened or coerced by the u.s. so-called 'state department' to not deliver... such as some sort of banking action or, hopefully not, military blockades of food shipments... the masterstroke by Putin & Co. to immediately stop food imports on 8/7 has, and will have, long term negative impact on those selected countries/ unions... and there's nothing worse than pissing off a farmer or rancher, when he sees he has marketable goods for sale, a timeline for selling said goods and an eager buyer for those goods, and then the ignorant, moronic leaders of his or her country basically put the farmer/rancher's livelihood and their lives in jeopardy... V.P. keeps playing chess, the rest tiddley-winks