Since in 2014 the administration of Vladimir Putin imposed an embargo on Polish fresh food, allegedly harmful to the health of Russians, our exports to that market have collapsed. This continued until this year. Now we have rebuilt the losses, but not with food, but with much more processed products.
Within two years, we increased exports to Russia by PLN 1.2 billion, which allowed us to finally exceed the level before the embargo imposed by the administration of Vladimir Putin
Plants located in Poland sold there in the first quarter turbojet engines with a capacity of over 25 kilonewtons for PLN 198 million, while there was no sale of such equipment to Russia in the previous year.
We also sold drugs for PLN 230 million, or PLN 154 million more year on year, but also … digital processors for PLN 285 million – PLN 77 million more y / y.
Automotive vehicles and their parts are also a strong point of our exports – in the first quarter of this year, such goods were sent to Russia from Poland for as much as PLN 799 million, PLN 168 million more y / y. The fastest increase was recorded in trucks (an increase by PLN 67 million to PLN 155 million) and tractors (an increase by PLN 50 million to PLN 88 million).
As a result, our most important export products to Russia are now products from the engineering, electrical, automotive and chemical industries. In terms of added value to the economy, this is a good change rather than focusing on unprocessed food.
“Our goods defend themselves on the Russian market with good quality, and we can protect ourselves against risks that are important for companies”, write in the report on the attractiveness of the Russian market for Polish exporters, Jakub Lancucki and Adam Stosio, directors of Ebury Polska.
They remind that in the year of introducing the embargo, the government of the Russian Federation adopted an extensive program of replacing imports with products produced locally in as many as 23 sectors of the economy, including: agri-food, pharmaceutical, energy, machinery, chemical, telecommunications, transport and IT.
“The purpose of this program was to reduce the dependence of the Russian economy on supplies from abroad. As is often the case with this type of programs, the execution turned out to be far from the assumptions – despite huge financial outlays and forcing consumers and state institutions to use domestic products by legal orders “- they comment.