Russia banned European food imports – meat, sausage, fish and seafood, fruit, vegetables, and dairy – in August 2014 in response to sanctions imposed on it for having taken back Crimea.
"Model estimates showed German agriculture income drop in summer 2015 by a maximum of 0.3 percent due to the embargo, while earnings of the German food industry were slashed by 0.4 percent. This effect should have since decreased," the ministry said.
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Germany succeeded in shoring up its agriculture industry by finding other export markets, authorities said without elaborating. They pointed to various sanitary regulations introduced by Russia shortly before the tit-for-tat restrictions, which saw trade between the two countries shrink.