Russian Food Embargo Highlights Ineffectiveness of EU Agricultural Sector

Last year, the Russian government banned imports of certain food products coming from a number of European countries in response to anti-Russian sanctions imposed earlier by the United States and the EU.

The list of products, first prohibited to be imported in Russia in August 2014, comprises meat, poultry, fish, seafood, dairy products, fruit and vegetables.

As a result, French food producers, in particular, felt the negative impact of these economic measures.

"In 2014, retaliatory measures taken by Russia caused France to decrease the export of agricultural products by 23 percent, then it accounted to €585 million compared to €760 million in 2013," Le Croix reported.

And this year, France is seeing a severe drop in the sales of French meat, poultry and dairy products. In the past, these products were sold in the Russian market.

The Russian food embargo coincided with one of the worst moments for the French economy and further aggravated an internal crisis in the country. The ban caused the overproduction of food within European markets that led to a sharp decline in food prices. Low food prices in turn caused a crisis in the agricultural sector.

In other words, the Russian embargo highlighted profound difficulties within the French agricultural sector, its inability to survive when commodity prices constantly fluctuate and the country can't maintain price stability to support domestic manufacturers, the newspaper said.

In June, the Russian government announced a one-year extension of the food embargo, following the EU's decision to extend sanctions against Russia.