OREANDA-NEWS. September 22, 2014. The World Food Moscow exhibition has drawn three Estonian companies, but many have stayed away due to the import ban on EU food products.

“For us it is important to keep contacts alive with Russian businessmen, because Russian businessmen are suffering just as we are,” Valdur Noormagi, head of the Estonian Association of Fishery, said, adding that Estonian raw frozen fish was used in canning plants in Russia, but deliveries have since ended.

Dimitri Iljushin, the head of exports at A Le Coq, said the import ban does not concern beer and although the market share of import beers is small, it has recently began to grow in Russia.

Meat packing plant Saaremaa Lihatoostus, on the other hand, stayed away.

European food growers and producers were replaced by Chinese and Brazilian companies at the expo.