Not only world markets were involved in the rise in food prices

by time news

Experts named a number of purely internal factors

Sharp fluctuations in prices for socially important products are associated with an unstable global environment. The problems are escalating, President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council (SEEC). According to experts interviewed by MK, this is far from the only driver of food inflation.

According to Rosstat, in April food prices in Russia rose by 0.75%, in annual terms – by 6.55%. Since the beginning of 2021, prices have risen by 3.85%. In December, in order to avoid such dynamics, the government entered into an agreement with producers and retail chains to freeze prices for sugar and sunflower oil, and later adopted a number of customs and tariff measures.

In particular, duties were introduced on the export of grain and sunflower. However, this had very little effect on the dynamics of food inflation.

The situation is due to many interrelated factors. Among them: an increase in the costs of agricultural complexes and a weakening ruble, due to which the prices for imported equipment and raw materials are constantly going up.

According to Igor Nikolayev, Doctor of Economics, the authorities are also silent about such objective things as insufficient competition among producers, clumsy attempts at state administration of prices, ineffective regulation of tariffs by natural monopolies, and finally, the Russian anti-sanctions introduced back in 2014.

It seems, Nikolayev argues, that the enraged world markets are targeting only Russia. In the European Union, food prices have hardly risen since last year – prices there have risen by hundredths of a percent, and overall inflation is not comparable to ours.

“A number of products are produced in the Russian Federation on the basis of imported seeds, components, ingredients,” says Anna Bodrova, senior analyst at IAC Alpari. – About 60% of the food on our shelves is net imports. The rest follows the analogs in price, and this is already the “hand of the market”.

There are moments that are difficult to explain by external reasons. For example, the rise in prices for meat and chicken and eggs is associated with a 75% rise in feed prices over the past nine months. In turn, feed becomes more expensive due to the high cost of grain, which is more profitable to sell for export. This situation is observed not only in the meat and dairy industry, but also in other sectors of the agro-industrial complex. And this, Anna Bodrova sums up, is not the influence of an external background, but a poor tuning of internal processes.

.

You may also like

Leave a Comment