China is willing to expand its agricultural produce trade with Russia, Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesman Shen Danyang said during a press conference on August 18. This presents a huge opportunity for Chinese producers—and shows the ineffectiveness of Western attempts to isolate Russia over its behavior toward Ukraine.

Russia banned imported Western foodstuffs on August 7 in retaliation for Western sanctions against Russia for its part in the Ukrainian crisis. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced the ban would include meat, fish, fruit, vegetables and milk from Western nations—mainly the European Union and the United States. This ban leaves a 700,000-ton gap in the fruit segment alone.

“With an entire year of the ban, the Russian produce market is bound to experience a shortage of supply in the coming year, which is a huge opportunity for the Chinese produce industry,” said Lu Zuoqi, general manager of the apple division of Goodfarmer Fruits and Vegetables, a Chinese produce company.

Cao Xinyi is a branch manager of Dili Group, a major Chinese agricultural products distributor. He said he expected sales with Russia to increase this year by as much as 80 percent over previous years. Chinese agricultural exports to Russia last year were worth $2.1 billion.

Russia is one of China’s major trade partners. According to Chinese customs data, trade with Russia for the first seven months of this year was worth $53 billion, a 4 percent increase over last year.

Shen said agricultural produce trade between the neighboring countries has a unique growth potential.

The West placed the sanctions on Russia in an attempt to isolate it from the rest of the world. While successfully isolating it from the West, the sanctions are driving Russia to its Asian neighbors.