MOSCOW, April 29 (PRIME/RIA Novosti) – Russia and China have the potential to greatly expand trade, which could offset Russia’s losses should the West press on with economic sanctions, the country’s business ombudsman Boris Titov said.
According to Titov, Moscow and Beijing have moved closer together over the past few years, with China boosting its imports of Russian liquefied natural gas, organic foods, wines and timber. Titov also predicted interest in Russia’s newly-acquired republic of Crimea from Chinese investors.
“I think there’s still a big potential for Crimea. The Chinese will come there as investors,” Titov told reporters Tuesday.
He added that an increase in Russian-Chinese trade turnover would not cut exports to Europe, which has been on a quest to diversify Russian imports.
RUSSIAN-CHINESE PIPELINE
Titov predicted a surge in bilateral energy ties between the two neighbors. “We are in for bigger energy deliveries with added gas exports,” he said.
Russia’s largest independent gas producer Novatek and the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) have been considering liquefied natural gas (LNG) deliveries to China.
Earlier this month, the two energy giants discussed, among other issues, their plans to manage and fund the Arctic Yamal LNG project that includes the construction of an LNG production facility with a capacity of 16.5 million tons.
Novatek, Russia’s second largest gas producer, expects to sign a deal with CNPC to supply China with liquefied gas during President Putin’s upcoming visit to Beijing in May.
In a separate development, Russian gas major Gazprom is planning to launch the first line of its LNG plant in Russia’s Far Eastern Vladivostok by 2018 to supply liquefied gas to China, Japan, India and other Asia pacific nations.
BIO FOODS
China could also be interested in importing Russian organic fruits and vegetables due to the immense contamination of its own cultivated land.
“Their [Chinese] soil has been exhausted after China had to boost its agricultural production to feed the growing population,” the pundit said. “The population’s purchasing power is on the rise and the Chinese require organic foods.”
The sustained growth of the Chinese population has exacted a price from the land in increased soil pollution, raising food safety concerns in the country.
“Russia could become one of [China’s] top suppliers,” Titov suggested. “China has offered huge investment allocations for organic food development,” he said, adding the two nations first had to remove all customs barriers to stimulate agriculture trade.
CRIMEAN WINES
Boris Titov hopes that Chinese importers would consider purchasing premium Crimean wines. The ombudsman said he received a collective letter from Crimea’s top wine producers – Massandra, Novy Svet, inkerman Intl, Legenda Krima and Solnechnaya Dolina – asking him to lobby tax breaks and subsidies for the wine industry in Russia’s newest republic after it was hit by Ukraine’s economic crisis.
“Crimea’s wineries have been lagging behind Russian producers due to the lack of investment,” Titov confirmed.
The total area of Crimean vineyards has been shrinking steadily since 1985 and now amounts to less than 30,000 hectares. But the wine industry in the southern peninsula on the Black Sea can still be restored to its former glory, with a further 50,000 hectares ready to be used for viticulture.
