Thailand’s export of fruit and vegetables to Russia grounded by sanctions

By: 3 years ago

The Nation/Asia News Network

BANGKOK — The international sanctions against Russia and fewer flights to the country have severely affected Thai export of fresh vegetables and fruit to Russia, Thailand’s commerce envoy in Moscow said.

KKittinan Yingcharoen, the director of the International Trade Promotion Office in Moscow, said the imports of vegetables and fruit from Thailand were affected after Aeroflot and other Russian airlines, including S7 Airlines, Ural Airlines and other freighter airlines, stopped their services since March 8 because of the international sanctions.

Kittinan explained that the sanctions following Russia’s invasion into Ukraine had prompted plane lease companies in western countries to cancel their contracts with Russian airlines. Most planes of Russian airlines were leased from these companies.

Moreover, Boeing and Airbus have halted their technical support for planes of Russian airlines and stopped selling parts to the airlines. The measures forced the airlines to halt their services because they could not buy the required spare parts.

“These measures had severely affected the export of fresh vegetables and fruit to Russia because these products rot easily. They need to be shipped on direct flights from Thailand to Russia to save shipping time,” Kittinan said.

He said only airlines of a few nonpartisan nations are still flying to Russia, including Emirates Airlines, Qatar Airlines and Ethihad Airlines. But these airlines have to make transit flights to their country, where the temperature is high and the fresh vegetables and fruit could be damaged by the heat.

Kittinan said his office has surveyed the importers of Thai vegetables and fruit in Russia and found that they had to suspend their businesses because of several negative factors, including a 50 percent rouble depreciation against the US dollar, 10 percent inflation and difficulty in making money transfers.

He added that some importers were now testing the use of services of Middle East airlines although the shipping cost was higher and some 15 per cent of the products could go rotten.

According to information from the Commerce Ministry, the value of Russia’s import of fruit from Thailand in 2021 was US$5.9 million and the import value of fresh and frozen vegetables was US$2.83 million.

Kittinan advised Thai exporters to decline orders from Russia for fruit and vegetables until direct flights between Thailand Russia are resumed.