Russia to purchase $2.5B in fruit, fishery products from PHL –Piñol

Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol on Tuesday announced that the Philippines and Russia will ink a trade link that would include Moscow's importing $2.5 billion worth of Filipino products for the next 12 months.

In a post on Facebook, Piñol said that the agricultural trade link will be signed on Thursday in the presence of President Rodrigo Duterte and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Piñol said that several Filipino agriculture and fisheries producers have joined Duterte on his official visit because of the agreement.

“With a population of about 150 million and ranked 6th among the countries in the world with high GDP at $3.9-trillion, the opening of the Russia market for Philippine agriculture products would be a big boost to the economy of our country,” he said.

Banana

Meanwhile, Philippine Ambassador to the Russian Federation Carlos Sorreta told reporters that Piñol and Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez were also expected to pitch Philippine bananas to the Russians.

“One of our targets is agricultural products like—Sec. Piñol, Sec. Lopez said, for example, Russia is a huge market for bananas. They love bananas. They import one billion worth of bananas a year. One billion. Can you imagine that?” he said.

“It’s largely from tiny little Ecuador that captures 95 percent of the banana market. That’s because of the massive—they’ve invested in promotion… We need to invest in promoting our products. They just won’t buy it. We really need to promote,” he added.

Russia has been importing dried mangoes, desiccated coconut, coconut oil, and coconut sugar from the Philippines.

Sorreta said Russians also like coconut water, which they heavily import from Vietnam and Thailand.

Russia has been importing dried mangoes, desiccated coconut, coconut oil, and coconut sugar from the Philippines. Sorreta added that the Philippines also export fish products to Russia, particularly canned, fresh, and frozen tuna. — BM, GMA News