OREANDA-NEWS. October 15, 2014. Anne Sulling, the minister of Foreign Trade and Entrepreneurship, said potential customers to purchase Estonian dairy products will visit the country in November, good news for the industry, which was hit Russian import ban on food from EU nations.

Sulling said she does not want to go into details as of yet, as it may harm the negotiation process.
She said Estonia sent out product examples a month ago, only adding that the target markets lie outside of the European Union. She said the potential customers are coming to inspect Estonian production facilities.

Sulling said they have been working on finding new markets since the plan for the import ban was announced.

Dairy companies and the Estonian state have feuded over the exact state of the industry, with the sector asking for more state aid and holding a protest in Tallinn in September.

The Estonian Institute of Economic Research calculated the cost of the ban at 150 million euros annually, in both direct and indirect losses.

Cheese manufacturers are suffering the most, with their losses calculated at 27 million euros. Raw fish and fish products make up 15 million euros annually in exports to the eastern neighbor, with milk and dairy products in a similar bracket.