Russian imports from countries outside CIS up 27% this year

Russia has drastically increased imports from non-CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries through July this year, according to the data from Russia’s Federal Customs Service.

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CIS members include Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Imports outside the CIS block were up by 27.4 percent to $107.6 billion against the same period a year ago.

In July, exports of engineering products rose over 35 percent year-on-year, while food products grew 23.1 percent. Shoes and textile imports surged 21.8 percent with supplies of chemicals up nearly 20 percent.

Year-on-year imports of grain almost doubled, while purchases of vegetables surged 40 percent and dairy products by 42 percent.

The volume of fruit purchased by Russia rose 41.6 percent. Meat imports were up 27 percent and fish - almost 10 percent.

The agency said imports in July totaled $17.82 billion, which is 0.4 percent up month-on-month.

In July textiles and shoe imports grew 15.9 percent to $1.2 billion month-on-month. However, imports of food products dropped 3.8 percent to $1.8 billion with vegetable supplies plunging to a third of its previous level. Fruit shipments to Russia dropped 14 percent while fish imports were down three percent.

During the same period, Russia’s purchases of meat surged 18 percent and seed oil 17.5 percent, while dairy products imports grew 12 percent.

Russia bought five percent more alcohol and non-alcohol products and 1.6 percent more tobacco goods in July. Exports of grain were also up by 3.6 percent.

Last month, Russia imported 0.2 percent less of engineering products compared to the previous month, while imports of chemical products rose 0.1 percent to $3.12 billion.