In 2021, due to coronavirus restrictions, China temporarily lost its status as the largest buyer of food from Russia, but returned it again in 2022.
In general, over the past year, exports of Russian agricultural products to China increased by 44%, and if in kind, then by 36%. Such data are provided by the Ministry of Agriculture.
What is China buying most actively?
First, it is rapeseed oil.
According to the Federal Customs Service, exports of this product to China doubled in 2022, and in monetary terms — 2.4 times. At the moment, China consumes up to 70% of Russian rapeseed oil, which is exported.
China is also in first place in purchasing honey and linseed oil from the Russian Federation.
This year, Russian farmers harvested 4.5 million tons of rapeseed instead of 2.7 million tons a year earlier. This made it possible to achieve good results in oil processing and double the volumes.
Moreover, China is the most important market for this product for Russia.
As for soybeans, the physical volumes of deliveries remained practically unchanged, while revenue increased 1.5 times.
China remains one of the main buyers of soybeans from the Russian Federation, and many agricultural producers located in regions adjacent to China initially «sharpen» all production for export.
And last year, the physical volumes of deliveries to China of vegetable meal and cake increased by 16 times.
Such deliveries brought almost 8 times more revenue.
Supplies of poultry and beef, soybeans, oats are actively growing.
In meat, growth is especially noticeable. In 2022, Russia sent 11% more poultry meat to China than a year earlier.
This is largely due to the abolition of all the same virus restrictions: meat safety checks have become less stringent. At the same time, the proceeds of exporters from the sale of poultry meat to the Middle Kingdom increased much more strongly, by 53%, due to rising prices.
At the same time, China now accounts for about 40% of all Russian exports of this category of products.
The deliveries of fish and seafood also increased very significantly. In physical terms, they rose by more than 46%, and in monetary terms even more — by 68%.
What are the prospects?
According to the specialists of the Agroexport Center, Russia has great prospects for further increasing agricultural exports to China.
This can apply to many categories of products, but first of all — meat and fish, grains and oils.
Additional 2 factors for the growth of supplies to China are its gradual recovery after the pandemic, causing an increase in demand, as well as the reorientation of Russian supplies to other countries after the closure of some markets.
