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Russian dairy producers have begun to access the Mauritanian market in Northwest Africa, with the Russian Agriculture Ministry’s Agroexport saying that Russian exports totaled 80 tonnes worth nearly US$190,000 in 10M 2025. Russia also exported yeast to Mauritania at over 75 tonnes worth nearly US$170,000 in the same period.
It is the first time Russian producers in these categories have exported to this market.
The peak in Russian export revenue to Mauritania was in 2020, when Russia supplied agricultural products, mainly wheat, worth over US$31 million.
Mauritania is a northwestern African nation with an Atlantic Ocean coastline. It has been part of the “Great African Expedition”, a six-month long Russian exploratory voyage to assess fish stocks off the West African coastline.
Recent efforts by Moscow to build closer ties with Mauritania fit into Russia’s push for greater presence, both security- and economy-wise, on the African continent. With Mauritania, however, Moscow also seeks augmented presence in the Sahel and West African region of the continent.
In early 2023, for the first time in the history of bilateral trade and economic relations, Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, together with a delegation of Russian businessmen, paid a visit to the capital of Mauritania, Nouakchott. The program, organized as part of the Russian Business Week in North Africa, included a Russian-Mauritanian business forum, a meeting of the Russian-Mauritanian working group on interaction at the business level, and bilateral meetings on business interests, as well as visits to enterprises and organizations.
Russia is interested in investing in the fishing industry (production of fishmeal and canned food), where Russian fishing vessels have been operating in Mauritania’s exclusive economic zone for 30 years. However, the Russian Foreign Minister stated that “we need to direct our main efforts to diversify our trade and economic ties, to search for new forms of cooperation.”
The two countries can also work on the development of infrastructure, agriculture (including agricultural development and the supply of Russian machinery and equipment), tourism, and energy and raw material exploration. Mauritania’s main industry is iron ore mining, and the country boasts gold, gypsum, and oil deposits where Russia can help with geological exploration.
For the moment Russian investments in Mauritania remain low. This is not so much because of Russian inactivity as because foreign direct investments into the African country generally stand close to zero. A low level of security, a lack of proper bureaucratic systems related to foreign investors, and most of all, the uncertain geopolitical situation in the region overall. Yet Russia has to start somewhere, as Lavrov noted, and Mauritania has a potentially useful and strategic coastline and supplies of seafood that could make an impression upon Russian imports if managed and developed correctly. Russia may begin by helping install governmental and bureaucratic structures and help Mauritania develop from there.
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