Posted on 08/06/2014 9:51:07 AM PDT by lodi90
Today, "with the goal of protecting Russia's national interests," Vladimir Putin issued a decree "banning or limiting" the import of food stuffs from countries that imposed sanctions on Russia after pro-Russian separatists shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in Ukraine. That includes the United States, the European Union, Japan, Australia, and Canada.
Russia, despite once being the bread basket of Europe, now imports 40 percent of its food. And even if local growers and producers step up to fill the gap left by the ban, it will still take a long time and the transition will be rough.
(Excerpt) Read more at newrepublic.com ...
Average price for apples is about half euro a pound in Russia. Expensive ones are about twice that much, cheapest are about 30 cents. These are Chinese or Turkish. I think babushkas won’t suffer picking these.
Wait until all those chickens being raised for the Russians hit the market???
Ohhh comrade Vlad, please don’t send all our chickens home to roost — LOL
Wait until all those chickens being raised for the Russians hit the market???
Russia already banned GMO foods.
“These are Chinese or Turkish. I think babushkas won’t suffer picking these.”
Food, like oil, is largely fungible.
Instead of Polish apples, they by Tajik apples.
Instead of French wines, they buy Israeli wines.
The point is that the small nations these sanctions are directed at will start feeling REAL pain, now, and they have already started complaining about it.
If food, like oil, is largely fungible (I agree with the oil part, not so much the "food" part because the term is too broad), why must European producers suffer when you posit the Russian consumer will not?
<>Russia already banned GMO foods<>
Really —
I guess someone forgot to tell all the chicken farmers:
Russia’s threatened ban on U.S. poultry imports, the latest move in a sanctions skirmish over Moscow’s support of rebels in Ukraine, has agriculture companies alert to the risks of a conflict that’s already roiled trading of crops ranging from soy, beef and fruit to California pistachios.
Moscow has struck back against trade sanctions following the downing of a Malaysian jetliner last month by imposing food restrictions, and would add U.S. chickens to Ukrainian soy and other products Russia has blocked since it seized Crimea earlier this year: Australian beef, Latvian and Lithuanian pork, Moldovan fruit and Ukrainian juice.
I can’t wait for those lower beef prices when that Australian beef hits the market, and a whole lot of others as well.
Thank You, Vlad — please punish us some more.
Food, like oil, is largely fungible.
Instead of Polish apples, they by Tajik apples.
Instead of French wines, they buy Israeli wines.
The point is that the small nations these sanctions are directed at will start feeling REAL pain, now, and they have already started complaining about it.
All wrong. Congratulations.
Food is not fungible because it costs money to transport it. Already there are reports of food inflation in Kaliningrad.
Russia has been pulling these food banning games for years in the Baltics. If the goal has been to make them Pro-Russian it has failed miserably. Putin has managed to turn a career EU bureaucrat Lithuanian president into a nationalist who advocates strong sanctions on Russia.
“why must European producers suffer when you posit the Russian consumer will not?”
Basic economics.
When you lose your biggest buyer, finding others isn’t that easy, when fewer customers are competing for more product. As was noted, Apple sales to Russia makes up .06% of Poland’s ENTIRE GDP. Now, they have to find other markets to sell those apples in, with all costs that come with it.
Russia, however, can just find another apple supplier, buying more from countries that already supply them.
Someone wins, but the sanctioned country has to scramble, already facing a loss of income.
Works for me!
I'm waiting for our elected imbeciles and criminal bureaucrats to ban airline flights from Russia, or any flight of any airline that stops in Russia.
For the longest time, wasn't Russia a major purchaser of U.S. grain?
And here I thought that Poland had a better grasp of long term consequences than the average ex-soviet satellite.
“Already there are reports of food inflation in Kaliningrad.”
I’d try to explain to you how unique and vulnerable K-grad is because of it’s isolation, but I’m pretty sure it will fall on deaf ears.
Sure, it will have some effects, but not ones that Most Russians can’t handle.
These aren’t Obama voters we are talking about.
You simply cannot deny the rules of basic economics. (Unless you have an EBT Card).
“For the longest time, wasn’t Russia a major purchaser of U.S. grain?”
Yes, they were, but as someone noted upthread, Russia now EXPORTS wheat, and has since 2007.
Worse, actually. Imagine an Obama voter with all of his Russian TV channels controlled by the state. Straight out of Orwell.
Difference being, Poland does not want to become Soviet again.
“Imagine an Obama voter with all of his Russian TV channels controlled by the state. Straight out of Orwell.”
Pretty clear that you don’t watch U.S. TV, or you couldn’t make that statement with a straight face.
Here, we have MSNBC and FOX. Russia has MSNBC and MSNBC.
Food inflation and roiling the Russian consumer market with sanctions will hammer fixed income folks in Russia. They spend basically all their money on utilities and food. Back to the 1990’s Russia will go.
Chinese are not interested in covering Russia’s ass. They have caught Russia weak and in need so they are doing less pleasant things to that ass.
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