Russia has been one of Latvia's top five export partners for many years. This has not changed since Russia's full-scale military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Moreover, the first year of the war was the year when the amount of goods exported by Latvia to Russia reached its highest level since 2005. Delfi looked at data from the Central Statistical Office (CSP) to examine which goods are exported to Russia the most. In the first five months of this year, goods worth less than €428 million were exported from Latvia to Russia, CSP data shows. This is less than in the first five months of 2023, when goods worth more than 468 million euros entered Russia, but more than in January-May 2019, when the war and the COVID-19 pandemic had not yet begun, complicating various supply chains. In the first year of the war, 2022, Latvian exports to Russia were the highest since 2005. In 2022, goods worth 1.198 billion euros were supplied to Russia from Latvia. A sharp jump compared to 2021 occurred in food products, drinks, including alcohol, as well as tobacco and its substitutes. If in 2021 these goods were exported to Russia in the amount of 329.6 million euros, then in 2022 they already amounted to 369.9 million euros. Moreover, the sharpest rise began after February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine. In 2022, in one month, the largest volume of exports occurred in November, when food products, drinks and tobacco worth 60.53 million euros were exported from Latvia to Russia. For comparison: in January of the same year, a month before the start of the war, they amounted to 22.8 million euros. Among the products in this category in 2022, the largest – worth 98.39 million euros – are sparkling wines from fresh grapes. Now wine has surpassed whiskey: if in 2022 this alcoholic drink was exported to Russia in the amount of 50.57 million euros, then in 2023 – in the amount of 131.35 million euros. In the first five months of this year, the value of whiskey exported to Russia amounted to 53.26 million euros.
