French exports to Russia were divided by more than four in value in April 2022 (100 million euros) compared to the same month of 2021 (500 million euros), according to a study published by Customs on Friday 8 July. “With the war in Ukraine [qui a débuté] February 24, 2022 and the sanctions packages adopted by the European Union against Russia, Franco-Russian trade has been strongly affected”the statement said.
Before the war, France mainly exported products of “medium-high technology” in aeronautics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, information or automobiles – sales reached 6.3 billion euros in 2021. On the other hand, exports of agri-food products had already fallen sharply since 2014, due to sanctions taken since the annexation of Crimea and the development of the Russian agri-food sector as a result.
On the import side, purchases of Russian goods in France doubled in value between April 2021 and April 2022, due to rising energy prices. But excluding energy, imports fell by 28% in value in April. As a result, France’s trade balance with Russia was in balance in April, compared to a surplus a year earlier.
“The impact of the Ukrainian conflict on our supplies and on our production chains is linked to the difficulty of substituting the products that France imports from Russia.”
The customs servicein a press release
However, in terms of energy, the scenario is quite different: France’s energy deficit with Russia has thus widened by 134% over one year, weighed down by the rise in the price of hydrocarbons. Before the crisis, energy products represented 80% of French imports from Russia, for around 10.2 billion euros in 2021. Excluding energy, France mainly imported chemical, metallurgical or metallic products.