Chapter 7: Prospects for Agri-Food Trade Between Russia and China
AbstractChina features prominently in Russia’s medium-term export targets and is also considered to be an important investment partner for developing agriculture in the Russian Far East. Meanwhile, China is seeking to mitigate economic risks by diversifying import supply channels; Russia features as one such supplier. However, this chapter cautions that the agricultural and food trade relationship remains vulnerable to a range of operational, technical, and policy hurdles. These obstacles dovetail with political imperatives on both sides for self-sufficiency, which limits the scope for trade. Thus, China is and will continue to be an expanding market for Russian agricultural goods, but there are tenuous realities in terms of concrete cooperation.