Analytics, Baltic States – CIS, Estonia, Foodstuff, Markets and Companies

The Chamber of Commerce carried out a poll among its members, aiming to find out what impact the Russian sanctions have had on Estonian businesses and what the influence will be in the near future.

Besides the agriculture and food sector, the direct impact of sanctions has already been felt in the logistics and transport sector – in the past few weeks, auto transport in the Russian direction has considerably decreased.

Slightly more than a half of the entrepreneurs who participated in the study stated that Russia's sanctions have not had a direct impact on them. However, there are also a few companies in Estonia that have already benefitted or expect to benefit in the future from the current foreign political situation. For example clients of Estonian companies have received additional orders from Russia since Russian companies cannot get the necessary industrial production from Eastern Ukraine. Businesses operating in border areas hope that the import ban on food products will bring more Russians to Estonian shops.

The respondents are more concerned about the indirect effects of the sanctions. Nearly 60% of the respondents felt that they have already felt the indirect impact of the sanctions or think that the negative effects manifest themselves in the near future. Companies think that their customers will reduce exports to Russia and thus orders from Estonian companies also decrease. The main reason for the fall in exports is not considered to be the sanctions, but the tense political situation and the weakening of the rouble. The survey results showed that in addition to food (especially fish and dairy products), some enterprises experienced reduction of, for example, building materials and manufactured goods orders. Respondents estimate that the tense situation can reduce Russian transit through Estonia, and they consider a negative influence on the tourism sector likely.

The Chamber of Commerce said that businesses who have already been directly or indirectly affected by the Russian sanctions, are looking for new markets for export (30% of respondents). In addition, they plan to make changes to products portfolio (22%) and to reduce the volume of production (19%).