CZECH REPUBLIC: Czech charities say Russia's food import ban on EU and the West brings relief to their operations, as a surplus of unsold food from manufacturers across the country pours into food banks

Record ID: 565539

  • Title: CZECH REPUBLIC: Czech charities say Russia's food import ban on EU and the West brings relief to their operations, as a surplus of unsold food from manufacturers across the country pours into food banks
  • Date: 4th September 2014
  • Summary: LITOVEL, CZECH REPUBLIC (FILE - 2013) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF CHEESE PROCESSING AT ORRERO DAIRY VARIOUS OF CHEESE STORAGE
  • Embargoed: 19th September 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Czech Republic
  • Country: Czech Republic
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVABRZRXQOIHEWHXVZ33VJ34SD7P
  • Story Text: In the escalating dispute between Russia and the West over Ukraine, some Czech charities are emerging as the unlikely beneficiaries of the tit-for-tat sanctions.
    Earlier in August, Russia banned U.S. and EU meat, fish, dairy, fruit and vegetables in retaliation for Western sanctions imposed on Moscow after it annexed Ukraine's Crimea region and backed separatist rebels fighting Ukrainian government forces.
    But as the sanctions sent some local food prices soaring in Russia and opened a large gap in many European and Western markets, food banks in the Czech Republic have seen their storages flooding with food products, bringing relief to their struggling operations.

    "The situation is excellent now. We were desperate in spring because we didn't have anything to offer to our clients, the storage was empty. Now, due to the sanctions from Russia, trucks of food are coming here," said Vera Dousova, the director of one Prague's food banks, which caters for 83 clients, mostly charity organisations or care homes for orphans, the mentally ill or disabled.
    Dousova said since the ban, clients were coming more frequently to the food bank, to make the most of the broad range of food on offer, which arrives to their storage facilities in truck-loads.

    "The food is coming from different places. We mostly have deep frozen pre-fried cheese, which we store in the fridge at minus 16 degrees Celsius. We have truck-loads of them. Then we have spread cheese, which also came in several trucks," Dousova added.
    Now even fruits, sweets and chocolates are piling in the bank's warehouse, a rare sight for its workers.
    The director of the orphanage in Unhost which hosts 48 children is one of the beneficiaries of the sanctions.
    His orphanage receives food from food banks to supplement the children's diet.

    "What is going on in Ukraine it's sad, but for us it is having this (positive) effect," Jiri Beranek said.
    The situation, as good as it may be for the underprivileged, worries agricultural and food experts.
    Exports of agricultural products from the Czech Republic to Russia were increasing in recent years, growing from 1,87 billion Czech crowns (euro 620 million) in 2011 to 2,2 billion crowns (euro 810 million) in 2013.
    The first Czech companies affected by the Russian food ban were diary producers, which are not a major export of the Czech Republic.

    "The first step of the (Russian) ban of food imports (from EU and the West), mainly concerns our dairy products. The exported goods annually amount to the value of 300 million Czech Crowns (approximately 15 million USD), but it is the export of only three firms," said director of the Czech Food and Drink Industry chamber, Miroslav Koberna.
    According to Koberna the big agricultural producers highly dependent on export to Russia like the Netherlands, Poland or Germany or fruit exporters like Spain or Italy are most affected by the ban.

    "It will depend very much on Brussels to calm down the food producers, and to show them that they have a solution about what to do with the excess food. Or on the other side, we can wait for the efforts of the affected countries to place huge quantities of foods on the European market, which, in any case, it will lead to the collapse of prices," he said about expectations of Czech food manufacturers towards the EU.
    Russia's retaliatory ban on imports of food from the European Union could cost producers in the bloc 5 billion euros ($6.6 billion) a year, according to an internal EU document seen by Reuters on Wednesday.
    The European Union is considering compensating European food producers hit by trade restrictions that Russia has imposed in retaliation for EU sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.
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