The Russian embargo, imposed after the EU announced further economic sanctions for the country’s involvement in the Ukraine crisis, hurt Cyprus to the tune of €13.5 million in exports.

Out of that, €10.7m relates to citrus fruits, specifically an exclusively Cyprus variation called the mandora, a cross between an orange and a mandarin, used by Russian businesses to produce juice.

The island will receive close to €4.0 million for the withdrawal of 19.2 tonnes of citrus fruit.

“The agriculture ministry will issue the details on how this plan will work in the next few days,” Minister Nicos Kouyiallis said.

The European Commission said on Monday it had adopted a new programme for emergency market measures for perishable fruit and vegetables after the Russian ban on imports of certain EU agricultural products.

Worth up to €165 million, the new scheme provides support to withdraw surplus volumes from the market and comes in addition to the programme worth up to €125 million for fruit and vegetables that was announced on August 18, but suspended on September 10 because provisional applications showed that the full budget allocation had already been claimed.

Source: Cyprus Mail