Eastern approaches | Poland and Russia

Eat apples to annoy Putin

Moscow’s import ban arouses strong emotions

By A.C. | WARSAW

RUSSIA’S import ban on Polish fruit and vegetables will leave Poland with a big surplus of apples by the end of the year. Last year 677,000 tonnes of Polish apples went to Russia, accounting for 56% of Poland’s apple exports. This year Poland was able to export its apples to Russia only until August 1st, when Russia imposed an import ban.

Poles have responded by celebrating the forbidden fruit, encouraging people via a social-media campaign on Facebook and YouTube (pictured) to “Eat apples to annoy Putin”. Intermarché, a chain of supermarkets, is planning to send 40 tonnes of apples to Kaliningrad, the Russia enclave that shares a border with Poland, drawing humorous comparisons with Russia’s recent “humanitarian convoy” to eastern Ukraine.

From Tallinn to Warsaw, Moscow’s latest trade sanctions arouse strong emotions. Russia is “a totally untrustworthy and unpredictable business partner,” said Dalia Grybauskaitė, Lithuania's president, on August 8th, the day after Russia imposed a wide-ranging ban on food products from the European Union and other countries. In Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, food producers and politicians expected the ban. But this doesn’t mean they were ready when it was imposed.

The ban could cost Polish farmers €500m ($659m), according to estimates by Poland’s ministry of agriculture. In the three Baltic States, where food exports to Russia represent a smaller fraction of overall exports, dairy producers will be among the most affected. Road hauliers who drive food to Russia will feel it too. Evaldas Gustas, Lithuania’s minister of the economy, said that the effects of the ban “will not be extensive”, but that it could reduce Lithuania’s GDP growth by 0.2 percentage points if it lasts. Taavi Rõivas, Estonia’s prime minister, pointed out in an interview that ordinary Russian consumers will have to make the biggest sacrifice.

Not only trade with Russia has been affected: four days after the ban was announced, Pieno Zvaigdzes, Lithuania’s second-largest producer of dairy products, stopped taking deliveries from one of Latvia’s largest milk producer cooperatives, citing force majeure.

Governments are trying to help. Riga will grant tax holidays to Latvian companies that export more than 10% of their products to Russia, among other measures. Warsaw has been discussing ways to help cider producers, though it has decided to keep the excise tax on the alcoholic beverage. Poland is banking on farmers receiving compensation from Brussels, though Marek Sawicki, the minister of agriculture, was not impressed by the European Commission’s offer of €125m. “We’ll keep fighting,” he said.

With Russia’s veterinary and phytosanitary services becoming increasingly capricious and arbitrary in their assessments of foreign foods, some producers may have no choice but to try and sell their products elsewhere. Warsaw is trying to convince Washington to open the American market to Polish apples. But America's strict standards for food imports, and the likely opposition of American farmers, mean it could be a long wait.

Meanwhile, four weeks into the ban, and with the apple season around the corner, Poles don’t appear to be eating more apples. Despite the #jedzjabłka (eat apples) campaign on social media, apple growers and supermarkets say they are selling the same amount as before. To counteract the ban, Poles would have to start eating twice as many apples, doubling their annual consumption to 30kg each.

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