The amount of flowers grown by Russian companies has doubled since 2022 despite sanctions, Mikhail Mishustin has said

Russia has overcome its dependence on the West with regard to flower farming, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Wednesday during a visit to one of the major enterprises in the industry. The country has doubled its production volumes in the years since Western sanctions were imposed, he said.

The prime minister was touring a greenhouse flower farming company in Moscow Region ahead of International Women’s Day. March 8 is celebrated in many countries across the world, and flowers are among the most popular gifts for the occasion in Russia.

The West “sought to deprive our women of flowers. They did not succeed,” Mishustin told journalists and company employees during his visit. He acknowledged that the restrictions which hit the national flower growing industry in April 2022, shortly after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, shocked everyone at first.

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At the time, Russia imported 100% of its planting material for some of the most popular flower types, such as tulips or roses, according to RBK business news outlet. The EU restricted exports of flowers, bulbs, and seeds to Russia as part of its fifth round of sanctions.

Local producers eventually used the opportunity to increase their production volumes, Mishustin said. The government supported the industry with specialized credit lines and benefits, he explained, adding that the industry can expect further support in the future.

The US and its allies in the EU and elsewhere have hit Moscow with an unprecedented number of restrictions since the start of the Ukraine conflict. The sanctions have targeted everything from the banking sector to Russia’s international financial transactions, its oil and gas industry, as well as individual government members and entrepreneurs.

The restrictions failed to prevent the nation’s economic growth, with GDP increasing by 5.4% year-on-year as of the first quarter of 2024, according to the state statistics agency, Rosstat. Russia also increased the role of the ruble in its export settlements. The currency was used for more than half of the settlements for goods and services exported by Russia to other European countries by mid-March 2024.