IMPORT OF AGRI-FOOD PRODUCTS BY THE EUROPEAN UNION IN THE PERIOD OF NEW GEOPOLITICAL REALITIES OF THE COUNTRIES OF THE NORTHERN BLACK SEA REGION. CASE STUDY: EU-RUSSIA (2022-2024)

The analysis presents the multidirectional dynamics of import activity of the EU member states in the period from the Q1 2022 to the Q1 2025, relative to other countries of the world. The agro-import groups that record growth or decline are identified. It is indicated how the “agro-food import landscape” of the EU partner countries in the world has changed, what contributed to the change of leaders during this period and what measures the EU has taken to reorient its imported agro-commodity flows from other continents or geographic areas of foreign trade purchases. The author presents the measures that made it possible to reconfigure the change in the import rate from the purchase markets of classic partners (for example, Russia) to new countries (previously not included in the top main partners of exporters to the European market for food consumption). The analysis demonstrates which commodity groups remained unchanged and showed significant growth in the trade balance with classic countries, previously the main partners of the EU. The focus of the study is on the period of economic restrictions of the EU towards Russia, a direct form of geopolitical contradictions in the Black Sea region as a donor of agricultural raw materials to world markets, and records important downward export trends with China and dynamic foreign trade growth with a number of West African countries (Nigeria, Côte d’Voir, etc.).