Ukraine conflict: Yorkshire Tea's Russian sales suspended

The owner of the Yorkshire Tea brand said it had been exporting its teas to Russia for several years

Yorkshire Tea will no longer be sold in Russia after the brand's owner confirmed it had suspended trade there in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.

Taylors of Harrogate said Russia had been an export market for some of its teas for several years.

However, a spokesperson said company policy was to not trade with people or states sanctioned by the UK government.

The producers of Harrogate Spring Water also confirmed they were suspending exports to Russia.

'Deeply shocked'

The move by the North Yorkshire-based firms came as a number of multi-national companies suspended Russian operations.

A spokesperson for Taylors of Harrogate said: "We've been deeply shocked and saddened by the invasion and our thoughts are with all those impacted.

"As a result of the invasion and the subsequent sanctions, we've suspended trade."

Taylors of Harrogate had an ethical trade and human rights policy which guided how it worked with suppliers, customers and distributors, the spokesperson said.

"It includes the provision that we will not trade with individuals, entities, regions or countries where UK sanctions have been applied."

Vladimir Putin was pictured in 2009 with a bottle of Harrogate Spring Water in front of him

Meanwhile, the producers of Harrogate Spring Water said in a statement that they had "made the decision to stop all exports to Russia with immediate effect".

The company declined to comment further.

The firm is understood to have been exporting its bottled waters, which hark back to Harrogate's history as a fashionable spa town, to Russia for several years.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was photographed in 2009, when he was Prime Minister, with a bottle of the water in front of him.

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