Asia, the Middle East and Africa remain the priority markets for Russian agricultural exports

At the round table "Forecast of scientific and technological development of the agro-industrial complex: a new agenda in the post-COVID era", Dmitry Krasnov, HEAD of Agroexport of the Russian Federation, announced priority markets for RUSSIA that will ensure further growth of domestic exports

He named the main buyers of domestic agricultural products, including CHINA , Southeast and South Asia, India, the Middle East and a number of African countries.

According to the expert, last year the Russian agro-industrial complex showed a record EXPORT volume. And this suggests that domestic agriculture and exports were prepared and successfully took advantage of the current situation, taking a fairly high line in the world list of exporters. According to preliminary data, in 2020 Russia ranked 17th in exports of agricultural products, its total volume increased by 20% to $30.7 billion.

“We showed significant growth in all types of agricultural products that we supply to China, Turkey, EU countries, Kazakhstan, Egypt,” the expert said. – We are talking about oil and fat, MEAT and dairy products, with the exception, perhaps, of one position in the export of fish, where sales remained at the same level.

In 2020, we conducted joint research and conducted an assessment in the context of each industry…. We built a business model for organizing supplies. For poultry meat - to China, sunflower oil - to India, confectionery - to Saudi Arabia and China. For each study, we built a business model for organizing supplies and developing supplies to these markets. And we came to the conclusion that our main task is not even to increase exports, but to have a stable presence in key markets. If we look at the development of our poultry meat exports to China, our share of exports has reached 10%. But from the point of view of the assortment, and we mainly trade in offal - the legs and tips of the wings of a bird, we understand that the key problem is to expand the assortment and enter the Chinese shelf. But for this we need to open supplies, related to finished products and expand the range of supplied poultry products. Only by occupying several sales channels can you secure a long-term presence in this market. And in the event of a crisis, create reliable alternative channels and ways of supply development.

A number of other developments have taken place in the Chinese market. Deliveries of barley and beef from Australia have been significantly reduced - hundreds of billions of dollars. Where it would seem we could enter. But in order to replace something, it is necessary to create a sufficient volume, ensure the rhythm and quality of supplies and provide such a range of assortment that creates a potential opportunity to enter export markets.

Therefore, it is not so much the percentage, share, and even growth dynamics that are important, but the improvement in the quality of the products supplied, the speed of transactions, the simplification and reduction in the cost of the entire supply chain. These sustainability factors are key and only if they are present will we be able to take advantage of the situation.

What needs to be done to maintain resilience and ensure presence.

I spoke about the quality and expansion of the range, and the collective actions of Russian companies in foreign markets are also important, when the industry is a kind of whole, and not a separate set of companies that implement various strategic and tactical initiatives, in fact, entering into competition with each other on our key markets. These are serious costs for our exports.

He called for joint actions that will help ensure large batches of deliveries, their rhythm, cost reduction - this is the range of tasks that each of our sub-sectors and Russian exports as a whole faces.

Ensuring this presence to a large extent will also be connected with the fact that we must support our products in foreign markets with appropriate marketing and communication initiatives.

MKB: Exports of high value-added agro-industrial products continue to grow

There are a lot of tasks facing Russian exports, to a large extent they are of a structural and organizational nature. But the main thing is that we have attention to how to move.”