Workshop "Opportunities for Bavarian Food in Russia in Times of Sanctions"

With the Russian food import ban against Western countries in August 2014, many sectors of the Russian agricultural economy are virtually completely protected from cheap world market imports and at the same time supported by extensive subsidy programmes. Russian pig production has profited greatly from this policy and has shown a very dynamic development in recent years: "We expect that Russian and German pork exporters will compete on the world market in the future," says IAMO scientist Linde Götz. However, the results for the pork sector cannot be transferred to the production of milk and beef, which require much higher investments and are subject to a longer production cycle: "The production of milk and butter has remained virtually constant in recent years. Here the high macroeconomic and political instability plays a major role, which - as has been shown - cannot be compensated even with extensive subsidies". On the other hand, the grain sector, which is developing very well anyway, is also benefiting from the devaluation of the rouble. It is expected that the success story of this sector will continue with Russia's steady rise to become the world's largest wheat exporter, while the USA will continue to lose importance.