Russia Bans Agricultural Products from Western countries in response to sanctions

Russia announced Thursday August 7, 2014 that they will be banning imports of meat, fish, milk (milk products) and fruit and vegetables from the United States, the European Union, Australia, Canada and Norway.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that the ban is an order from president Vladimir Putin in their response to sanctions imposed on Russia by the West over the crisis in Ukraine that was hatched by the US.

This just shows that Russia can fight back. Russia can easily get those agricultural products from other countries in Asia and South America which is cheaper and has higher quality.

Experts said that local producers will find it hard to fill the gap left by the ban, as the nation's agricultural sector has continued to suffer from poor efficiency and shortage of funds.

Russia depends heavily on imported agricultural products, their Food and agricultural imports from the U.S. amounted to $1.3 billion last year, based on the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and in 2013 the EU's agricultural exports to Russia totaled 11.8 billion euros ($15.8 billion).