The Russian Federation is the third trade partner of Serbia and leading European companies are investing, transferring production to our country due to the use of trade preferences
Serbia and Russia could form joint production companies that would place goods on third markets, but the potential of the free trade agreement we have with the Russian Federation has not been sufficiently used and our exports to that country are stagnating.
That Russia is interested in a larger amount of Serbian goods on its market was confirmed during a recent visit to Belgrade by the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Yuri Borisov, after a meeting with the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic.
Dejan Delic, director of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce in Moscow, says that the formation of Serbian-Russian companies is proposed due to simpler positioning in the domestic and entering third markets, with which Serbia has signed free trade agreements, which would use trade preferences and prices.
– Serbia and Russia are already cooperating in all areas of the economy. A large number of joint companies have been opened from agricultural and food production, through textiles, footwear, pharmaceutical-cosmetic and construction industries – Delic emphasizes.
According to him, there is no register of joint companies, but in everyday work he meets the requirements of such companies, which, developing their own production with foreign support (in this case from the Russian Federation), use the opportunity to enter third markets.
– For example, yesterday we organized logistics, forwarding and transport from China to Serbia through a Serbian company that opened a Russian legal entity in Moscow. We are currently looking for a strategic partner for a Russian company that wants to deal with wood processing and production of final products due to exports to the Russian Federation and the EU (parts and equipment for saunas). Also, preparations are underway for the Russian investment in connection with the production of textile equipment for special purposes (doctors and medics) for the purpose of export to Russia, the region and the EU – states Delic.
However, he does not agree with the assessment that Serbian exports to Russia are stagnating.
– Moreover, in the periods of macroeconomic stability, absence of foreign pressures and sanctions against Russia, which result in oscillation and fall of the value of the Russian national currency, Serbian exports have grown by an average of about 20 percent in the last ten years, which is the case in six months this year. In 2021, we expect exports in excess of one billion dollars.
He emphasizes that, looking at the list of goods for export of Serbia to Russia, we register the export of products of higher added value. From medicines, white goods, truck trailers, parquet and floor coverings, pneumatic tires, circulating pumps to women’s fashion socks, dairy products…
– The Russian Federation is the third trade partner of Serbia. And not only trade, leading European companies invest, transfer production to Serbia for the use of trade preferences, based on the Agreement on Free Trade, Exit and Export to the Eurasian Union market. Looking at only the first ten, leading exporters from Serbia to Russia, eight are foreign direct investments from the EU – says Delic.
Great interest in the export of apples, peaches…
The Ministry of Trade and Telecommunications states that the Serbian side is interested in greater placement of goods on the Russian market, especially those items that are already exported to Russia, such as agri-food products: apples, soybeans, cheese, dog and cats food, strawberries, nectarines, cherries, peaches, edible fruit seedlings.
There are also industrial products: pneumatic tires for cars, trucks, buses, then socks, medicines, paper and cardboard, circulating pumps.
Trade exchange with Russia
According to the Republic Bureau of Statistics, the total foreign trade exchange with the Russian Federation in 2020 amounted to 2.47 billion dollars, which is a decrease of 30 percent compared to 2019. Exports amounted to 911 million dollars, which is 6.7 percent less than last year.
Serbia’s leading export products to the Russian Federation in the period January-December 2020 are: apples, fresh, other (11 percent), pneumatic tires, new for passenger cars (six percent), tights, self-supporting, synthetics, soybeans, broken or crushed, etc.
The leading imported products of the Republic of Serbia from the Russian Federation in the period January-December 2020 are: natural gas in gaseous state (21 percent), oils from bituminous minerals, and crude (19 percent), Politika reports.
