Egypt became the largest importer of Russian food

In the country section the first place among the buyers is taken by Egypt, which accounted for 9.1% of all Russian shipments of food. Last year, the Arab Republic increased purchases by 44% to $1.74 billion. China, which increased food imports from Russia by 11% to $1.72 billion (9% of Russian exports, has moved from the first to the second place by the results of last year. Also the top 5 largest buyers included Turkey ($1.53 billion), South Korea ($1.4 billion) and Kazakhstan ($1.26 billion). "The export to Egypt (first of all, wheat and sunflower oil), Vietnam (grain, meat and poultry by — products), to the Republic of Korea (seafood, grain) increased most strongly in 2017," the REC analysts noted.

According to the FCS, the vast majority of food products purchased by Egypt in Russia, accounted for wheat, the share of which amounted to 82% ($1.43 billion) in the total supply. Compared to 2016, Egypt increased its imports of Russian wheat by 44%. Wheat is also the main goods of the Russian food exports in general — its share in the total volume of supply in 2017 increased from 28% to 30%, notes the REC. Among the main export items there is frozen fish (11%), sunflower oil (9.4%), crustaceans (5%), maize (4.7%), barley (3.8%) and chocolate products (2.9%). Sugar showed the highest growth rates in sales last year (4.6 times — from $59 million to $273 million), as well as rape, intestines and stomachs of animals, barley, eggs, sunflower and livestock by-products.

In 2017 Russia exported food products and agricultural raw materials in the amount of $20.3 billion, which is 21.5% more than in 2016. As the Deputy Minister of agriculture Dzhambulat Khatuov said during the investment forum in Sochi, by 2025 the export of agricultural products could increase to $30 billion. A few days later, the Head of the Ministry of agriculture Alexander Tkachev announced his intention to increase exports to $50 billion by 2024. "Naturally, we must take into account both pricing and the challenges that exist in food production. But, by increasing exports, we will increase the capitalization of the industry and attract investments into it," said the Minister in an interview with "Russia 24".

According to the forecast of the Ministry of agriculture, by the results of the season-2017/18, grain exports will grow from 35.5 million tons to 45-47 million tons in the past agricultural year and, according to Khatuov, "there is full confidence that the supply of grain will increase." In addition, in the long term until 2025 the main export goods in addition to traditional grain and sunflower oil will become pork and soybean oil, predicted the Director of the Department of economy, investments and regulation of agricultural markets of the Ministry of agriculture Anatoly Kutsenko at the IX international conference "Where the margin is ". Besides, export volume of rapeseed oil and soy oil is expected to increase threefold up to $0.76 billion and $1.04 billion, pork — up to $1.1 billion, beef and poultry meat – up to more than $0.5 billion. 

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