In 2019 Russia increased the import of butter by almost a third
But the largest increase in imports in the food group was demonstrated by butter: there were imported 118.8 thousand tons (at $635 million), which is 31.2% more than in 2018. In value terms, deliveries increased by 47.1%. Butter has been the leader in this indicator for almost the whole year. Other dairy products also showed a high increase in imports. Thus, the import of condensed milk and cream increased by 7.6%, to 177.5 thousand tons ($424.4 million, which is 33.7% more than in the previous year), cheese and cottage cheese - by 9%, to 272.8 thousand tons ($1.139 billion, 16.4% more).
Barley was the leader in terms of growth of import rates in the market of grain and legumes. There was imported 29.6 thousand tons of barley ($6 million), which is 78.2% more than a year earlier. Deliveries of wheat and meslin decreased by 46.7%, to 183.5 thousand tons ($46.8 million), corn - by 24.9%, to 33.2 thousand tons ($108.2 million). Imports of soybeans amounted to 2.028 million tons ($791.9 million), which is 9.4% less than in 2018.
Last year, citrus imports increased by 0.8% to 1.67 million tons ($1.3 billion), while imports of apples decreased by 16.9% to 934.5 thousand tons ($585.9 million). There were also imported less bananas than a year earlier , by 2.8%, to 1.512 million tons ($1.1 billion). The FCS also reported that imports of coffee increased by 11.3%, to 217.8 thousand tons ($631.4 million), and tea - decreased by 8.2%, to 150.3 thousand tons ($425.7 million).
Deliveries of palm oil in 2019 increased by 0.1%, to 1.06 million tons ($668 million), vegetable oil - decreased by 90.4%, to 2.5 thousand tons ($1.9 million). Imports of raw sugar amounted to 7.4 thousand tons ($4.9 million), which is 13.2% more than a year earlier.
Import of white sugar decreased by 26.6% to 231.5 thousand tons ($91.6 million). Confectionery enterprises imported 65.7 thousand tons ($177.1 million) of cocoa beans during this period, which is 19% more than in the previous year, as well as 128.3 thousand tons ($585.1 million) of products containing cocoa (an increase of 6.5%).
At the same time, supplies of cocoa butter decreased by 0.3% to 37.4 thousand tons ($218.8 million). In addition, in 2019, Russia imported alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages at $3.028 billion, which is 12.8% more than in 2018, and cigarettes and cigars – at $62.8 million (62.8% less). Imports of tobacco raw materials increased by 4.5% to 158.4 thousand tons ($649.9 million).
According to the Federal customs service, the share of imports of food products and raw materials for their production in the total import structure in 2019 decreased to 12.2% compared to 12.5% in 2018.
