Russia: Food Processing Sector
Russia’s stagnating economy has been the key factor affecting the domestic food market. The RussianGovernment has made import substitution and development of domestic agricultural production a national priority. The food processing sector has garnered special attention by the Russian Governmentin recent years which implements special supporting programs to improve the efficiency of enterprises, provides diversification of production and improves the competitiveness of manufactured products. In 2014, the industry’s output reached 4.68 trillion rubles ($123.37 billion). However, the food processing sector lacks raw materials due to the current food import ban introduced by Russian Government in August 2014 that pushed manufacturers to switch to alternative foreign suppliers or to locally produced raw materials.