The ban came into force on January 10, and it is expected to remain in place until at least August 5, according to the Ukrainian government.

"Ukraine exits the free trade area with Russia, raises duties on all goods and puts a trade embargo on all food products manufactured in the Russian Federation, as well as on car building and engineering products," said Ukrainian Prime Arseniy Yatsenyuk, according to a statement released by the country’s government.

In other news, benchmarking and knowledge transfer have been highlighted as two essential tools to help farmers manage their businesses in volatile markets.

Giving evidence to the House of Lords EU Energy and Environment Sub-committee hearing on “Responding to price volatility and creating a more resilient agricultural sector” Sir Peter Kendall, chairman of the UK's Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board (AHDB), said that there has been a failure to provide farmers with the instruments to help farmers cope with volatility.

In his evidence Sir Peter called for a greater understanding of the commodity cycle and a greater understanding of risk to be shared with in the farming sector. He said that farmers did not like concept of benchmarking and he called for a new way of being able to explain to farmers how they should compare their businesses, both at home and around the world.

He suggested that mandatory price reporting could help farmers understand the markets.

Lord Curry in questioning the witnesses on benchmarking on the farm said that it was an essential tool. “If you want to encourage resilience, then understanding how you relate to your peers is essential,” he said.

Eirwen Williams, Director, Menter a Busnes, an independent economic development company building support programmes for the farming sector in Wales, said that by forming discussion groups farmers are able to share ideas and benchmark their achievements.

“Getting farmers to engage and benchmark isn’t an easy thing to do, but they see the benefit when they do,” she told the committee. - Read more on the hearing, here.

In disease news, South Korea reported an outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) at a pig farm in Jeollabuk-Do. Thirty cases were reported on the farm but all 670 pigs susceptible were destroyed to contain the outbreak.

African Swine Fever (ASF) cases continued to be reported across Europe this past week. Poland reported two outbreaks in wild boar close to the boarder with Belarus, Lithuania reported six outbreaks and 76 new outbreaks were reported in Estonia.