Since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the increasingly uncertain situation has had various impacts on the world. In August 2019, Russia temporarily suspended the import of kernel fruits and stone fruits from China. At present, Russia's resumption of importing Chinese apples is definitely good news for the Chinese apple industry.
China is the largest apple producer in the world, and the total annual output has been maintained at more than 40 million tons in recent years. At the same time, China is also one of the important apple exporters. After 2010, the annual export volume has been fluctuating around 1 million tons. Russia is the world's largest apple importer. In recent years, the total amount of imported apples has remained at a high level of around 800-100 million tons per year.
Before 2019, China had occupied a large share of Russia's imported apple market. In 2018, China exported 128,900 tons of apples to Russia, ranking second in terms of export volume, accounting for 14.8% of Russia's total imports. In the same year, China's total apple export volume was about 1.118 million tons, which means that apples exported to Russia accounted for 11.5% of the total export volume, which is also a considerable share.
After Russia issued a "ban" on apple imports from Poland and other European countries in 2014, except China, Russia's imported apples have been mainly from Moldova, Serbia, and Azerbaijan. Moldovan apples accounted for 28.3% of Russia's total apple imports in 2018, ranking first. Serbian apples accounted for 14.5%, and Azerbaijan accounted for 9.5%, ranking third and fourth respectively. After Russia resumes importing Chinese apples, Moldova, Serbia, and Azerbaijan are the main competitors of Chinese apples.