Russia on Thursday banned food imports from the EU, US, Australia, Canada and Norway in response to Western sanctions imposed over Moscow’s support for Ukrainian rebels.

Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told a cabinet meeting the ban was effective immediately and would last for one year. Russia's President Vladimir Putin signed the respective decree on Wednesday.

According to RIA, the import ban includes fresh, chilled and refrigerated beef and pork, poultry meat, salted, pickled, dried and smoked meat, fish, milk and dairy products, vegetables, fruits and nuts.

According to the coverage of the news in Wall Street Journal, ”the food ban would hit farmers in Eastern Europe, but would have little impact on the EU's overall economy.”

The negative impact of the ban on Bulgarian food exports to Russia was not immediately clear. According to data from the Bulgarian statistics office NSI, Russia is ninth on the list of Bulgarian export destinations with medicines having the largest share in deliveries to Russia.

Eighth on that list are Bulgarian wine exports.  Bulgaria also exports dairy and meat products to Russia.

According to European Commission data, Russia absorbs 30% of all EU fruit exports and over 20% of vegetable exports, ITAR-TASS news agency reported earlier. The EU's food exports to Russia totalled USD 7.4 B last year.

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