Russia has hit back with retaliatory embargoes of its own one week after the West announced tougher sanctions on Moscow.

Prime Minister Dimitry Medvedev announced Russia would be banning beef, pork, fruit, vegetable, poultry, fish and dairy products from Australia, the EU, United States, Canada and Norway late Thursday.

Speaking to Fairfax Media, Ms Bishop said “Russia's petulant response seeks to avoid accountability for its actions” relating to the MH17 but played down the effects of the sanctions on Australian producers.

She said while the sanctions will have “some effect on our trade,” Russia is “not Austraia's most significant export market by any means”.

Russian trade with Australia comprises just 0.4 per cent of Australia's overall trade and was worth $1.7b in 2013, according to Department of Foreign Affairs.

Those figures equated to $736 million in exports to the Russian federation and about $1.057 billion in imports.

By comparison, Australia's top five trade relationships are worth $151 billion (China) $70.7 billion (Japan), $54.7 billion (United States), $32 billion (South Korea) and $27 billion (Singapore). Russia is ranked 31st among Australia's trading partners.

Ms Bishop vowed to ensure Australian farmers would not be “adversely affected as far as possible” by opening up new markets for producers.

Russia had already cut off Australian beef imports after Canberra imposed sanctions for Moscow's annexation of Crimea. At the time Russia cited concerns with growth hormone levels.

A government source said there would be “no winners” in what Russia had done, particularly the Russian people who are reliant on agricultural imports from a range of countries including Australia.

And they stressed there was strong demand for Australian agricultural goods, particularly in Asia.

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