Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation and the Head of the Federal Agency for Fishery, Ilya Shestakov who doesn’t consider Sri Lankan farmers as a threat said: “Sri Lankan fruits and vegetables are no threat to Russian farmers”.

Minister was addressing the first Sri Lanka-Russia official trade talks which held in Moscow in early February covering the trade, investment, education, industry, customs, technical and science fields. This was organized by the Department of Commerce of Sri Lanka.

During the bilateral talks, Deputy Minister Shestakovof stressed the importance of establishing a joint working group on agriculture sphere to further develop the bilateral relations between the countries and added that the Russian cereals could be attractive to the Lankan market.

According to Russian Federal Customs data, bilateral trade between Sri Lanka and Russia in 2015 stood at $437 Mn. Sri Lankan exports to Russia in the first nine months of 2015 stood at $ 152 Mn and imports US$ 161 Mn.

Currently Sri Lanka’s major export item to Russia is tea, which accounts for nearly 85% of total exports. And also apparels, activated carbon, rubber and industrial gloves, coconut fibres, paper or paperboard labels, Mattress supports and retreated or used tires plastics are also exported. Sri Lanka’s imports from Russia shows a positive trend in past few years and major import from Russia are semi fished products of coal, iron, wheat, Fertilizers, asbestos, paper, paper board products and self-adhesive plates (Potassium Chloride).

Industry and Commerce Secretary TMKB Thennakoon led the Sri Lankan delegation joined by Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the Russian Federation Dr. Saman Weerasinghe, and Director General of Commerce Sonali Wijeratne.The Russian side was led by Deputy Minister Ilya Shestakov,Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Sri Lanka Alexander A Karchava.