MOSCOW: Russian companies, participating at Gulfood 2015 in United Arab Emirates showed keen interest in doing business in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries as Russian currency weakened these days.
“We want to increase our business in the Middle East. We want to find new clients in new countries where we can sell our products,” said Dmitriy Volobuev, commercial director at KZP Group, which exports wheat and barley.
The rouble has been tumbling since last year amid lower oil prices and Western sanctions against Russia over the country’s involvement in Ukraine. It has fallen by almost half against the dollar over the last year and by around 5 per cent over the last month to 0.0151. All of the GCC countries’ currencies are pegged to the dollar except for the Kuwaiti dinar.
Volobuev said that KZP Group, which operates in 70 countries worldwide, “makes much more profit because of the cheap rouble.” He expects the company’s grains exports to increase by around 20 per cent this year compared with last year, when it exported one million tonnes of grains.
