Russia will not rush the expansion of Turkish tomato supplies at the expense of new enterprises.
This was stated by the head of the Russian Agriculture Ministry, Alexander Tkachev, in an interview with Russia 24 TV channel, RIA Novosti reported.
"We will look at the quality of Turkish products, and how these volumes will affect the price, as well as the production of tomatoes inside Russia. Based on this, we will make certain decisions," he said.
Russia has officially allowed the import of Turkish tomatoes on quotas set by the Agriculture Ministry in late October. From November 1, Russia lifted a strict ban on the import of tomatoes from Turkey. Nevertheless, certain restrictions still remain in place. Ankara will be able to deliver 50,000 tons of tomatoes to the Russian market by the end of the year.
The ban on the tomato import is considered to be more hurtful for Turkey since Russia was the largest market for the Turkish tomato export with annual profit amounting to billions of dollars.
After the tomato ban, the amount of Turkish tomato exports to Russia decreased by 10.3 percent while their value dropped by 34.3 percent in 2016.
However, during the first seven months of the current year, the amount of tomatoes exported to Russia increased by 9.4 percent and the value of tomato exports also surged by 24.7 percent.
Source: azernews.az