Russia ban will affect €70m of Irish exports
The one-year ban is in revenge for the US and EU freezing assets and banning loans on individuals and companies in Russia, which they accuse of increasing tensions in eastern Ukraine.
The ban will affect meat, fish, dairy and fruit and vegetable imports from the US, EU, Canada, Australia and Norway.
Speaking to RTÉ radio, chief executive of Bord Bia Aidan Cotter said a support unit had been set up to help Irish companies affected by the ban.
“We are facing into a period of uncertainty, certainly in the short-term as well established trading patterns are disrupted in terms of markets both within and without Europe. I think it will have both a direct and indirect effect on exports and that is of concern at the present time,” he said.
Last year, Ireland exported in the region of €230m worth of food and drink to Russia.
The Bord Bia chief executive said the dairy sector would be most hit by the ban but that other sectors would also take a hit.
“We’re left with about €70m worth of exports that are affected by the latest sanctions that have been imposed by Russia. About €40m of those are in the dairy area, mostly milk powders, but also cheese, also €20m in seafood and €10m in beef,” he said.
However, Mr Cotter said a number of processing plants here in various sectors already had temporary bans placed on them before the latest restrictions.
“Adjustments will have been taking place in recent weeks and months because 12 processing plants in Ireland in the dairy, seafood and beef sector had already temporary bans placed on them by Russia. So some exporters will already have been seeking out alternative outlets in that period,” he said.
Mr Cotter said sectors such as pork meat had coped well with the ban and had found alternative markets across Europe, with the result that Irish pork prices were now 8% higher than they were for the same period last year.
“The short-term disruption will be of the greatest concern to people because we are talking about well-established trading patterns which have been established over a long period of time and that is clearly going to be very disruptive in the period ahead,” he said.
Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney has most concern about the impact of a €4.5m loss to cheese producers as a result of the ban, as most of these producers are clustered in the Munster region. However, he said the agriculture sector as a whole could weather the ban.
