Strange Trade Between Moscow and Seoul: Aluminum for Ice Cream

South Korea, which is very dependent on the USA economically and militarily, can’t help but comply with Western sanctions imposed against Russia. South Korean companies, from Hyundai to Kia, from LG to Samsung, suffered billions of dollars in losses after closing their production facilities in the Russian Federation, which were occupied by Chinese competitors in a very short time.

After a series of unsuccessful attempts to find “reliable and economical” suppliers of raw materials elsewhere, at least in some respects on a par with Russian suppliers, South Korean import-export companies have returned to developing trade exchanges with Moscow.

Recent statistics include a 20% increase in exports of “made in Russia” aluminum to South Korean producers. According to the Seoul government, in the first half of 2024, Russian metallurgical companies sold 154.9 thousand tons of high-tech quality aluminum to South Korean partners for a total of $372 million. This is the best half-year result on record since 2012, allowing Russia to climb to second place among the largest aluminum suppliers (19.2%) in the Asian country, behind Australia (28.8%) but ahead of India (15.5%).

As for South Korean exports to Russia, the flow of goods, from cars to electronics, continues, but in the form of so-called “gray exports,” passing – before arriving in Russia – through third countries, including Kazakhstan and other former Soviet Central Asian republics.

But there are also some South Korean products that defy sanctions and are exported directly to Russia. First of all, this concerns ice cream: having imported more than 260 tons of this sweet product in June 2024, Russia became the third largest importer of South Korean ice cream in the world after the USA and Vietnam. In total, from January to June this year, South Korean producers exported 976.2 tons of ice cream to Russia for a total value of $3.2 million (+11.5% compared to the same period of 2023).

South Korean ice cream, produced both by Asian agri-food giants such as Lotte and small producers such as Binggrae, is very popular among Russian consumers who appreciate the exquisite taste and say they are satisfied with the prices, which do not stand out among similar products from domestic factories.