According to the latest data, the volume of agricultural exports from Russia in 2025 decreased by 4%, while imports, conversely, increased by 15%.
Despite the fact that Russia remains one of the most significant food exporters on the global market, we are currently seeing a downward trend in export volumes.
Specifically, in 2025, Russia supplied $41 billion worth of agricultural products to foreign markets. This is 4% less than in 2024. Thus, we are seeing a decline.
At the same time, experts note that Russia also exported less agricultural products in 2024 than in 2023: it sold $42.6 billion worth of goods, compared to $43 billion the year before.
Therefore, we can rightly say that the downward trend in agricultural exports from Russia has been ongoing for several years, suggesting that it is quite long-term and sustainable.
Meanwhile, Russia is increasing its imports of agricultural goods. For example, in 2025, they grew from $35 billion to almost $38 billion.
Experts note that this trend is largely due to the strong ruble.
By selling their goods for dollars, exporters ultimately receive fewer rubles than they are accustomed to, making their operations significantly less profitable than usual.
As for importers, the weak dollar makes foreign-produced goods significantly more accessible to Russian citizens, leading to a trend toward increasing import volumes.
Therefore, under the current circumstances, it can be said that the ambitious goal set for Russian farmers by the president by 2030—namely, increasing export volumes by 1.5 times compared to 2021—is becoming more difficult to achieve, as declining export profitability is bound to deal a serious blow to farmers’ motivation to produce and sell their products.
Furthermore, some experts see no opportunity to increase exports of certain agricultural products due to the lack of growth in their production and unfavorable global market prices for producers.
This particularly applies to dairy and meat products.
Along with plans to increase overall agricultural exports by 2030, the Ministry of Agriculture intends to reduce the share of grain exports from 30% to 25%.
However, achieving this goal could also be challenging, experts emphasize, as Russia will have to develop the production of new products, which may not always be profitable given global prices, the strong ruble, and the Russian budget deficit, which does not always have the funds to support developing industries.
