The trade embargo on Russia that was instated about ten years ago had a major impact on a Polish apple exporter, as 70% of their produce was exported to Russia, says Janusz Kawęczyński, owner of Polish apple trader P.H. Elfruit: “We used to export a lot of produce to Russia, before the embargo was instated. For us, the main product exported to Russia was apples, with the Idared variety being the main variety shipped there. Back then, approximately 70% of our total sales were exports to Russia.”
According FreshPlaza, on the short term, as a result the earnings dipped and the company had to try and find other markets for their apples, which was not an easy feat, considering the apples were grown with Russian standards in mind, Kawęczyński explains. “When the embargo started, it caused massive challenges for us as a company. We had huge difficulties trying to replace the Russian market. In the short term, this significantly reduced our company’s turnover, which in turn resulted in the reduction of jobs. We limited our exported, but did manage to redirect our sales to other Eastern markets, as well as to less demanding markets in the European Union.”
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Even now the earnings are lower than what they were, but Kawęczyński has now set his focus on the processing market to compensate: “Now that we’re then years after the initial embargo, we still see it has had an impact, as lower sales have significantly affected the company’s earnings. Nowadays, we’ve diversified our offering. We export to the Eastern markets, but have also developed sales on cherries, apples and pears for the processing industry,” he concludes.
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