Russia, Turkiye To Increase and Diversify Bilateral Agricultural Trade

Russia and Turkiye plan to strengthen bilateral cooperation in agriculture with the aim of increasing and diversifying Russian-Turkish trade in agricultural products, according to a protocol from the Russian-Turkish intergovernmental commission meeting held last Friday (June 27).

The meeting assessed the work of the executive committee on bilateral agriculture. Sunflower oil, wheat bran, sunflower meal, and cake currently dominate Russia’s exports to Turkiye, according to information from the Agroexport federal center.

Trade in agricultural products between Russia and Turkiye amounted to around US$5.3 billion in 2024. Russia exported US$3.4 billion worth of products to Turkiye and imported US$1.9 billion worth from the country.

Russian Agricultural Exports To Turkiye

Turkey is a major importer of Russian wheat. According to estimates, Russia accounts for about 74% of all wheat imports into the country. Turkey is also one of the key importers of Russian sunflower oil and other sunflower products (sunflower meal/cake is used in Turkey as feed for livestock). In addition, Russia supplies Turkey with corn, barley, rapeseed and rapeseed oil, soybean meal and wheat bran, frozen fish (pollock, herring, mackerel), crustaceans, and honey.

Turkish Agricultural Exports to Russia

Turkish agricultural exports to Russia are concentrated in the categories of “edible fruits, nuts, citrus peel, melons,” which accounts for about 65% of the total volume of supplies. This includes citrus fruits (oranges, mandarins, lemons, grapefruits), grapes, apples, pears, stone fruits such as apricots, peaches, plums, and cherries, nuts (hazelnuts and pistachios), as well as seasonal supplies of watermelons and melons.

There have been some quality concerns with some imports from Turkiye but these appear to have been cleared up.

Turkiye’s overall bilateral trade with Russia has seen fluctuations, growing from US$33 billion in 2021 to US$68 billion in 2022 before declining to US$57 billion in 2023. Trade stabilized at US$56 billion in 2024, with Russia being Turkiye’s second-largest trade partner after China.

Turkiye is a BRICS partner nation. Both Russia and Turkiye have committed to increasing bilateral trade to US$100 billion by 2030.