Russian Agriculture Deputy Minister Evheniy Grominko announced Thursday that the ministry submitted a proposal to resume tomato imports from Turkey.

In a statement to the press in Moscow, the deputy minister evaluated the process regarding the ban on tomato imports from Turkey.

Explaining that the Russian Agriculture Ministry has completed work on the issues related to tomato imports, Grominko said they had submitted a proposal to the government.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to discuss the matter of resuming tomato imports in their meeting that was scheduled for yesterday around the time Daily Sabah went to print.

Turkey, which produces 70 percent of tomato exports to Russia, faced a Russian embargo as of Jan. 1, 2016. The country imposed import sanctions on many Turkish products such as tomatoes, oranges, apples, apricots, broccoli, mandarins, pears, chickens and turkeys, were later lifted after normalization talks began, except for tomatoes.

After the Russian embargo, the amount of tomato exports to the country decreased by 10.3 percent while their value dropped by 34.3 percent in 2016. However, during the first seven months of this year, the amount of tomatoes exported to Russia increased by 9.4 percent and the value of tomato exports also surged by 24.7 percent.

Turkey exported 541,000 tons of tomatoes to Russia in 2015, however, the amount fell to 486,000 tons. The value of tomato exports to the country was $365.3 million in 2015 and decreased to $239.9 million.

During the period of January-July, Turkey's tomato exports to Russia reached $198.3 million from last year's $159 million. Moreover, last year, the amount of "the symbol vegetable" exports were recorded at 322,000 tons while it reached to 353,000 tons this year during the first seven months.