August 13, 2014. Sverdlovsk Region-based enterprises coordinated customs clearance of 33,000,000 kg of imported agricultural produce in January-July 2014, Deputy Head of Customs Administration Alexei Yagovitin said at a press conference in Yekaterinburg today.

According to Yagovitin, food sanctions only affected 13,000,000 kg of foods declared at the customers since the beginning of 2014.

‘These are small amounts of meat and cheeses and 9,000,000 kg of apples,’ the official said.

Sverdlovsk Region Food & Agriculture Ministry, in its turn, promised to replace the missing foods with the local agricultural suppliers’ produce. According to Deputy Minister Vladimir Grebnev, a meeting with representatives of forty large local agricultural enterprises took place at the ministry recently.

‘I believe everything can be replaced. For example, apples can be grown anywhere, fish is found in the Atlantic and the Pacific. Meat is produced in all territories,’ Grebnev said.

At the same time, Sverdlovsk Region Government hasn’t yet developed a special program on the replacement of foods affected by sanctions.