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Rabat – The Russian ambassador to Morocco, Valerian Shuvaev, has confirmed to Sputnik News that Morocco lowered the grain tax to “zero” for Russia.
“Of course, this is good news because Morocco’s grain experts are one of the main Russian exports to Morocco.”
He added that Morocco’s decision will give Russia “more opportunity to increase the volume of deliveries and, in general, to expand our trade,” he said.
Sputnik reported that Russian Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev said that trade between Russia and Morocco increased in the first half of 2018 to $900 million, or 20 percent that the same period of 2017.
The news outlet added that the main Russian export goods are petroleum products, agro-food products, and coal.
Russia is also Morocco’s primary citrus export destination.
In 2017-2018, the North African country’s exports of mandarin and tangerine totaled 205,091 metric tons to Russia and 166,299 metric tons to the EU.
Read Also: Ambassador to Morocco: Morocco Made no Request for Russian S-400 Missiles Systems
In October, Morocco’s Minister of Agriculture Aziz Akhannouch said that agriculture products represent 77 percent of Moroccan exports to Russia, estimated at MAD 1.5 billion.
The official offered the statistics during his meeting with Patrushev.
Akhannouch said that the growth of trade between Rabat and Moscow is in the order of 10 percent since 2014.
Patrushev also presented a series of aspects of economic cooperation between the two countries, referring to the joint ventures in fruit, vegetables, and red meat.
The meeting was held as part of a mission to Morocco by the Russian Export Centre (REC) group of companies, during the 7th Moroccan-Russian Joint Intergovernmental Commission for Economic, Scientific, and Technical Cooperation.
On the sidelines of the joint commission, Morocco’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Bourita said economic exchanges have reached a “satisfactory” level as well as cooperation in the key sectors of agriculture, energy, tourism and industry between the two countries.
