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Ukraine estimates multi-million losses from Russian food embargo

Xinhua, November 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk said here Wednesday that his country will incur multi-million losses if Russia imposes a ban on its food products.

"According to our preliminary estimates, potential losses from the embargo next year could reach about 600 million U.S. dollars," Yatsenyuk was quoted by TASS news agency as saying.

Although Ukraine's dependence on Russia as an export destination declined by threefold in the recent three years, Kiev still heavily relies on the Russian market, which accounts for 12.5 percent of Ukraine total overseas sales, Yatsenyuk said.

Earlier Wednesday, Russian Minister of Economic Development Alexei Ulyukayev said that Moscow decided to introduce a ban on food imports from Ukraine starting from next year.

"Since Ukraine joined in the sanctions against the Russian Federation -- economic and financial -- we have resolved to introduce protective measures in the form of food embargoes," Ulyukayev said in an interview aired by the Rossiya-24 TV news channel.

In August, Moscow has warned that it may impose an embargo on Ukrainian food to protect Russian market from banned products from the European Union (EU) if a free trade agreement between Ukraine and the 28-member bloc comes into force.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that the long-delayed Ukraine-EU free trade pact will start functioning on Jan. 1, 2016. Endit