Food embargo

Lithuanian experts say that Russia's economic downturn and its embargo last year shaved around 1 percentage point off Lithuania's GDP growth, but it mostly affected only a few sectors, the daily Lietuvos Žinios reported on Thursday.

In August 2014, Russia banned a number of imports from the EU. Lithuanian dairy producers were particularly hard-hit by the embargo. Two years later, some of them have found other markets, while others are struggling to replace former revenues.

Russia will extend the embargo on food imports from the EU member states and other countries until the end of 2017, said Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Friday.

The European Commission's efforts to talk with Russia about opening up its markets for European pork did not meet with much success, according to EU commissioner for agriculture Phil Hogan.

The famous Lithuanian cheese Džiugas has been found in Russian stores but marked as “Made in Argentina”.

Lithuanian goods were only second to Belarus in terms of the number of seizures by the Russian Federal Customs Service under the Russian embargo of certain products and foodstuffs.

A Russian ban on Turkish food products has caused a glut of fruit and vegetables on European markets, causing a price war among producer countries, but it is not clear if it will have any effect on prices in Lithuania.

With the new year will come new changes to Lithuania's tax codes and other laws that will change residents' everyday lives and hopefully propel the country towards continued growth.

In the upcoming months, Lithuania's producers and exporters predict a decrease in Lithuanian industrial exports. According to a poll distributed to the heads of industrial companies by Statistics Lithuania, 14 percent of businesses predict a decrease while 17 percent predict an increase (a month ago...

Statistics Lithuania reports that in June, the volume of Lithuania's exports decreased by 3.6 percent on a year-on-year basis. But the decrease was influenced by a significant fall of re-exports, since exports of Lithuanian-made goods grew by 3.7 percent.

The economic embargo imposed by Russia had the biggest effect upon Russians themselves by way of a sharp decrease in the selection of food products and surge in food prices, says Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė.

The European Commission says that representatives of some EU member states have apparently met with Russia's representatives in recent months to discuss food export issues without informing the EU's executive body or other countries.

Russia is trying to sow discord between the Baltic countries and other European Union (EU) Member States by halting plans to resume imports of pork from selected Western European countries, political scientist Dovilė Jakniūnaitė believes.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė says that, by possibly allowing Russia to choose EU member-states for which it will lift the food exports embargo, European Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis is dividing the unity of the European Union and standing up for Moscow's interests.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė sees Brussels' proposal to Moscow to hold talks on lifting the existing food embargo with individual EU countries as a "deplorable precedent" and believes that Lithuania's representative, European Commissioner for Heath and Food Safety Vytenis Povilas Andriuka...

The European Union (EU) will be unified in talks with Russia over possible lifting of sanctions for certain food products, Phil Hogan, EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, said after a Farm Council meeting on Monday.

Lithuanian farmers say they are disappointed in Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis, the Lithuanian EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety.

Russia intends to lift sanctions on imports of food and farm products from certain European Union (EU) countries, which were introduced last August. However, the list of the countries does not include Lithuania, the Agriculture Minister and the Chief Veterinary Officer have said.

Due to Russia's food embargo and the beef overstock which resulted because of these restrictions, farmers who grow beef steers and cows lose around LTL 10 million (EUR 2.9 million) of income every month.

A 1,000-ton shipment of butter from Lithuania has got stuck due to Russia’s ban on the transportation of goods to Uzbekistan through Belarus.