Europe pays farmers to destroy food hit by Russian ban, Russia looks for ways to soften impact of food import bans

CNN: 18. August 2014


A customer chooses grape in an Auchan Hypermarket in Moscow

The latest: Farmers in Europe will be paid to destroy or give away fruit and vegetables to stop prices from collapsing after Russia banned imports in retaliation for Western sanctions.

EU officials said Monday they were setting aside 125 million euros ($167 million) to compensate producers for not selling a range of perishable items, harvesting them before they ripen or leaving them to rot.

"This is a measure aimed at reducing the level of supply so the prices don't drop to crisis levels," said European Commission spokesman Roger Waite.

Russia hit back at the latest round of Western sanctions over Ukraine with its own year-long ban on imports of food from Europe, the U.S., Australia, Canada and Norway.

The emergency assistance will take effect immediately and run until November, under existing EU rules covering support for farmers' incomes in times of crisis.

The products include apples, pears, tomatoes and cucumbers, and are all in full season. Farmers have few options to store them or find alternative markets, and prices for some products have already fallen by more than 50%.

EU exports of fruit and vegetables to Russia were worth about $2.7 billion last year. 

Countries hardest hit by the Russian ban include Poland, Spain, and Lithuania.

EU officials hope much of the withdrawn produce will be given away for free -- to food banks, prisons, schools or hospitals -- but some will be left on trees or in the ground, or harvested early and then destroyed.

European farmers and food cooperatives welcomed the move.

Officials will continue to monitor food markets, and could provide support to producers of other foodstuffs as needed.

Reuters: 18. August 2014
Russia looks for ways to soften impact of food import bans


The logo of Finnish dairy-products exporter Valio is seen on a car outside the company's offices in St. Petersburg on Aug. 12, 2014.

MOSCOW, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Russia will allow imports from neighbouring Belarus and Kazakhstan of food processed from Western raw materials which fall under Moscow's embargo, Russian news agencies quoted Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich as saying.

Last week, Russia banned all meat, fish, dairy, fruit and vegetable imports from the United States, the European Union, Norway, Canada, and Australia for one year to retaliate against Western sanctions slapped on Moscow over the Ukraine crisis.

However, the government has struggled to control price rises, since some 50 percent of Russian consumption of fish, milk, beef and cheese had been previously met by imports.