by Eugene Vorotnikov - FoodBizDaily.com - Moscow
September 16 2009 - The Brazilian producers of fresh fruits and vegetables will increase its presence in the Russian market, according to the Ministry of Agriculture of Brazil, Eduardo Marquez Sampo.
In 2008, the main export items of Brazil to Russia were cattle meat (403 tons at 1,3 billion dollars), pork (239 tons at $698 million), poultry (169 thousand tons at $295 million), sugar (2.1 million tonnes at $791 million) as well as tobacco (96 tons to 320 million dollars).
However, the volume of fruits exports is the structure of Brazilian food supplies was very low, despite the fact that Russia remains a priority sale market for the Brazilian agricultural crops. In this regard, the Brazilian producers, according to Marques, are planning to expand the exports of grapes and other fruits as well as bananas to Russia.
Currently bananas occupy a leading position in the structure of total fruit imports to Russia. In total, in 2008 fruit imports to Russia exceeded $4.6 billion in terms of value. Bananas accounted for 14,4% of total fruit imports, most of them were supplied from Ecuador - 12,8%.
Last year, Ecuador exported, more than 900 thousand tons of bananas to Russia worth $600 million, the share of Ecuadorian bananas amounted to about 90% of the total banana market in Russia. In addition to bananas, this country has supplied to Russia pineapples, mangoes, papayas and other fruits, but in much lower amounts.
Currently, the volume of world banana market is about $10 billion market, while the Russian market is accounting nearly $ 750 million, or 716 thousand
tons. The Consumption of bananas per capita in Russia in recent years, growing at a rapid pace.
Thus, at the end of 2009 the growth will exceed 13%. However, if the banana consumption in the Eastern Europe countries is about 8.10 kg per person, Russia has only half as much of this amount - 4.9 kg, which guarantees the continued growth of Russian market in the future.