It was unacceptable for the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation to take Turkey's decision to abolish duty-free imports of Russian grain and a number of other products. Attempts to pressure not only will not force Russia to bend, but even the department's planned lifting of restrictions may be subject to revision, warned the head of the Ministry of Agriculture, Alexander Tkachev.

The duties imposed by Ankara on the import of Russian agricultural products are an erroneous step that will not help it achieve the desired result. On the contrary, this may lead to a complete cessation of the supply of Russian wheat, corn, beans, rice and other products to Turkey, said Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation Alexander Tkachev.

"We do not accept and reject attempts to exert pressure on Russia in order to open the access of Turkish agricultural products to the Russian market in those sensitive areas where Russian production has been actively developing in recent years," the minister said.. The head of the Ministry of Agriculture noted that he was "extremely surprised and disappointed" with the actions of Turkey, since during the last six months the parties seemed to have established a good dialogue and the matter was towards normalizing bilateral trade relations.

"In the future, we planned to continue lifting restrictions on other types of agricultural products important for Turkey," Tkachev said.. Despite this, the Turkish side did not take "active steps to ensure access of Russian meat and dairy products to the Turkish market," the minister added.. Now the actions of Ankara and do question the sincerity of intentions to build a strong relationship.

Since March 15, Turkey has excluded Russia from the list of countries that have the opportunity to import duty-free agricultural products that Turkish importers used for processing and exporting to other countries. It is, in particular, the wheat: on the Russian grain, Turkey built a whole milling industry.

Now, all suppliers of any Russian agricultural products to Turkey must pay a duty of 130%. This makes the further supply to the Turkish market of a number of agricultural products uninteresting, and sometimes impossible,. According to Tkachev, Russia can quickly reorient the export of wheat, corn, unrefined sunflower oil, sunflower meal, beans, rice to other countries. What will the Turkish producers do without the cheap Russian raw materials, it's not clear. The head of the Assembly of Exporters of Turkey, Mehmet Buiukakeshi, earlier made it clear that Ankara went to the introduction of duties at the request of local tomato exporters and some other vegetables and fruits that are dissatisfied with the fact that they are not allowed to enter Russia.

The ban on the import of agricultural products from Turkey Moscow was introduced on January 1, 2016. After the attack of the Turkish Air Force on the Russian Su-24 in Syria. In October 2016 g. The embargo was partially abolished:

Russia allowed the supply of stone and citrus fruits from Turkey. March 9, 2017. The list of Turkish goods allowed for import was expanded due to onions, cauliflower, broccoli and some other products. At the same time, tomatoes, which used to flood the Russian market, remained banned.

Now the tomatoes will remain rotten in Turkish land, and the contracts of the Turkish flour producers will be broken. Perhaps, these rakes will teach Ankara good-order rules in relations with Russia.