(August 31, 2022)

Turkey, Serbia or Hungary are new gates from Europe to Russia?

So, we can confidently say that at the end of August, imports to Russia from abroad completely recovered at the level of January indicators. The same applies to the food industry, where, in principle, in Russia there is no lack of any foreign food and alcoholic beverages.

The main growth of import deliveries falls on the countries of Asia and Turkey. If the countries of Asia are long-term partners of Russia, then the rare import from Turkey is new for the Russian market.

The reason for this, now many European businesses are trading through Turkey with Russia. And even American businesses. (you can read poofs here the link to Turkish media https://bit.ly/3dXtGgP). Also, more than 5,000 US companies that have officially left the Russian market now indicate “Turkey” in their address.

Turkey does not officially confirm that it is helping Russian companies circumvent US sanctions, but result is obvious. Turkey has become “the main gateway from Europe to Russia.”

Trade between Russia and Turkey grew by 78% and reached historical volumes. And basically, Turkish companies act simply as intermediaries, making the shipment of goods and food to Russia on their own behalf, and receiving a commission for this from the real owners (European and American).

But it is interesting that Turkey almost never uses Russian business, on the contrary, as the main “gateway from Russia to Europe”. Now Russian businessmen, who worked for a long time with Europe, are trying to restore trade with their European partners and have two options for this:

1) Turkey
2) Serbia
3) Hungary

And in terms of priorities, work from Russia to Europe, through Serbia and Hungary, is of the greatest interest. And only then through Turkey. Why don’t Russian companies do the same as European or American ones? The reason is very simple, Russian businessmen “do not like” the policy of the Turkish Government, which tries to please everyone and, as seen by many of us Russians, is very unstable.

On the contrary, the attitude of the Governments of Serbia and Hungary towards cooperation with Russia has been more consistent and more transparent for many years now. And most importantly, don’t change. Therefore, it is in Serbia and Hungary that Russian businessmen massively open their businesses to work with partners from Europe

To summarize, despite all the efforts of politicians in the US, Russia and Europe, our businesses continue to cooperate as before, grow their volumes, and receive stable profits. Without barriers, sanctions and politics

From Russia with only food news without death and blood
Aleksander Sinyansky
Business Adviser on Russian Food Market
www.sinyansky.com