Sharp drop in exports to Ukraine and Russia

The value of exports to Russia fell by 453 million euros in March while exports to Ukraine were down by 97 million euros.

On the import side, developments in value were less negative to strongly positive. This is related to sharply increased prices of particularly food (e.g. maize and sunflower oil from Ukraine) and mineral fuels (e.g. petroleum and natural gas from Russia). In March, imports from Ukraine decreased by 10 percent in value but by 31 percent in weight. Imports from Russia rose sharply in value (by 115 percent) but hardly in weight.

Increased import value of Russian mineral fuels dominates

The value of imports from Russia is traditionally high, due to the importance of mineral fuel imports. Furthermore, energy prices surged between 2021 and 2022. Imports from Russia rose from 1.9 billion euros in March 2021 to 4.1 billion euros in March 2022. This is an increase of 2.2 billion euros, of which 1.7 billion euros related to mineral fuels.

Metals from Russia also soaring in price

The value of metal imports from Russia has risen by 0.4 billion euros. Substantial price increases resulted in a higher import value here as well. Nickel (with an import value increase of 128 million euros), copper (122 million), aluminium (82 million) and iron and steel (81 million) already had a significantly higher import value in March 2022 than in March 2021.

In the same period, exports to Russia and Ukraine declined, particularly exports of machinery and appliances, transport equipment and pharmaceutical products. Traditionally, however, Dutch exports to Ukraine are much smaller than to Russia. Dutch imports from Ukraine in March hardly decreased in value due to substantial price increases of Ukrainian food products such as maize and sunflower oil. Only metal ores showed a significant drop in import value.