OREANDA-NEWS  Russian companies have become more actively interested in the possibilities of entering the markets of "friendly" countries, including very remote and previously not so attractive, trade representatives of the Russian Federation told Kommersant, meetings of companies with which the Ministry of Industry and Trade and Delovaya Rossiya held last week. Exporters are no longer afraid of distances, nor problems with logistics and calculations: some companies have to work with new intermediaries, others have to look for direct buyers and local partners.

Control over the activities of trade missions was transferred from the Ministry of Economy to the Ministry of Industry and Trade back in 2018, at the same time a reform was launched to improve the efficiency of their work. Last week, Russian companies had several opportunities to communicate with trade representatives of the Russian Federation at once — meetings with them were held at Innoprom in Yekaterinburg and in Moscow at the site of Delovaya Rossiya. Business representatives noted their need for an ambulance in case of problems with supplies to new countries — logistics and settlement issues remain the main ones. "For some companies, the volume of accumulated funds in national currencies reaches tens of billions of dollars, and the company supplying steel becomes the largest importer of mango and avocado in the Russian Federation — this limits the volume of trade," one of the entrepreneurs complained. When entering the markets of developing countries, companies also face the requirements of localization and the opening of representative offices or branches.

In turn, the sales representatives themselves, in conversations with Kommersant, noted a multiple increase in business interest in geographically remote and less familiar markets, as well as a change in the structure of trade.

Thus, Russian suppliers of engineering and creative industries have entered the Brazilian market, where large volumes of fertilizers are traditionally supplied from the Russian Federation. Supplies of industrial products, including agricultural machinery, are growing in Azerbaijan. The interest of companies in the markets of Southeast Asia has also grown. It "has always been a "second—order" market for Russian companies, less was known about it, there were many times fewer Russian companies on it, and for these countries the presence on the market is critical - it is important to have personnel, service centers, a local address," said Alexander Svinin, the trade representative of the Russian Federation in Indonesia. There is also interest on the part of Indonesian companies, the trade representative adds — "they have a perception that it is possible to compete in the Russian market." Interaction is also facilitated by the fact that in both countries, national companies operate in many niches, which are less dependent on sanctions.

The trade representative of the Russian Federation in the Philippines, Artem Tsinamdzgvrishvili, says that the country is just opening up after covid restrictions, metallurgical companies, manufacturers of transport, agricultural products and food, as well as IT sectors and suppliers of financial services are already showing interest in its market. The main barriers are related to certification (it takes an average of six months, but an importer from the Philippine side can speed up the procedures), as well as protective duties in a number of sectors, such as in the agro-industrial complex and the automotive industry: assembly is required in them to reduce duties; import tariffs for components are significantly lower.