EU eyes Africa as growing market for agricultural products

BRUSSELS, Aug 26 (KUNA) -- The EU is looking to Africa as a potential market for its agricultural sector which has been severely affected by a Russian ban on food products from the 28-member European bloc.
"We are doing a lot of business with Africa and it is a growing potential source of opportunity for European markets," EU Commissioner for agriculture and rural development Phil Hogan told a news conference here Wednesday.
He noted that "North African countries like Algeria, Morocco and Nigeria are substantial importers of European agricultural products. We continue to have very good opportunities to do more there, he said.
Hogan said he hopes to visit Morocco next year with the aim to deepen relations further in the agriculture sector.
The EU official admitted that the agriculture sector in the EU has been severely hit by Russian sanctions "We are anticipating that the problem will spread to other EU member states (besides the UK,) he warned.
The Russian government earlier this month announced that it would continue its embargo on food products from the EU for another year. Russia first imposed the embargo in August 2014 in retaliation against sanctions that the EU put on Russia for its occupation of Crimea.
According to EU statistics, 12 percent of Europeآ’s fruit and vegetable and 10 percent of it diary products were exported to Russia. (end) nk.tg