In May of this year, Russia imported 5,600 tons of mandarins, oranges, citrus fruits, and grapefruits from Turkey less than half when compared with previous years. RIA Novosti reports that oranges decreased dramatically to 77 tons each year, which is one percent of Turkish imports, compared to 10% in the previous year. Mandarin imports dropped to 411 tonnes (7 percent of all imports) as lemon sales fell to 2200 tons. However, grapefruits grew by sixfold, reaching 2,900 tons. accounting for 52% of exports.

In spite of these developments, Turkey still holds a prominent position in Russia’s orange market. It supplies 11percent of the citrus and 23-25% of all oranges within retail chains.

In the words of Igor Karavaev, chairman of AKORT, Russian stores haven’t reduced the variety of citrus that include Turkish oranges. Apart from Turkey, Russia also imports citrus in Morocco, Egypt, Iran as well as Brazil.

Source: ria.ru