According to the portal Eastfruit, the government of Belarus from February 7, 2022 has limited the export of apples, white cabbage and onions from the country. Prior to this, the authorities introduced a ceiling on prices for these items. All this is happening against the backdrop of a noticeable rise in prices for domestic vegetables and apples.
About why prices have become such, and what is the situation with the harvest, if officials impose restrictions on their sale, Mirror.io talked to farmers. Some of them fear that due to export restrictions they will not be able to sell the crop, and are ready to destroy it, because “neither retail chains nor the authorities are interested in it,” while others have already sold it. In general, the situation is not easy.
The ban on the export of fruits and vegetables from Belarus has been introduced for three months. During this time, local producers will be able to send their onions, cabbage or apples abroad only once, and only if they receive a license, which must be issued by the Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade of the Republic of Belarus (MART). This is done in order to “first of all provide for the domestic market”, because in 2021 they harvested noticeably fewer vegetables.
Also, since January 1, counter-sanctions on the import of certain goods have been in force in the country. This is how the authorities responded to the Western sanctions against Belarus. The import ban also includes fruits and vegetables.
Many farmers who grow cabbage and onions say that they have already sold their vegetables and are not subject to new restrictions. The interlocutors only explained what the harvest was like on their lands:
- Usually we get 500-700 tons, and this year the cabbage got wet - they collected a minuscule amount: maybe 50 tons. Therefore, everything has long been sold and forgotten,” says farmer Mikhail. - We have almost no stocks of cabbage near Brest, but there are not enough of them in the republic. And everything was fine with onions, but in the autumn there was a great demand - and we also quickly sold it. I do not know how the new restrictions will now affect those who send their agricultural products to Russia. Some people supply cabbage there, but, by the way, onions, on the contrary, are imported from there to us, to Belarus.
Due to the cold spring, the farm of Vladislav, who works in the same region, also received less harvest compared to last year. But the volumes of harvested vegetables were average:
— There was nothing less than cabbage — about 1,5 thousand tons. We try to sell everything in season to storage bases, where it can lie all year round. Colleagues who buy cabbage say they can't find it. I think either it is not enough, or it is of inadequate quality. There were no particular problems with onions this season, because they are traditionally brought in large volumes from Russia. When a couple of months ago I was still participating in tenders for onions, in order to pass, I had to put a price on it lower than that of Russian suppliers. That is, for us, this is usually the cheapest item in the “borscht set”. I think there are hardly any problems with onions now, ”the man also notes.
Another Belarusian farmer, Andrei, has the opposite situation with cabbage: they have harvested a lot of it and have not had time to sell it yet.
“Where this problem came from, I don’t understand at all!” The harvest is good, my colleagues and I have enough cabbage,” Andrei says, referring to the fears of the authorities that there is not enough vegetables on the domestic market, and notes that he is dissatisfied with the restrictions imposed. “There was some kind of excitement, and officials are starting to divide my harvest, saying to whom I should sell it and for how much. We don't quite like this kind of politics, it's arm twisting!
The man mainly sold cabbage to Russia. He says there was both demand and a good price. There was an opportunity to compensate for the losses of past years, when the cabbage was "thrown away and no one needed it."
- The Russians are ready to buy at 1,7 rubles, but on the domestic market they set the price of 1 ruble - how would you feel about this? Of course, everyone wants to earn, - Andrey complained. - Trading networks are ready to take cabbage from producers and bases, they need it. But we grow a vegetable for industrial processing (salting) - here a head of cabbage is 5-8 kilograms each. Shops don't fit. And now I can neither export my goods nor sell them to the domestic market. Storage costs will rise, although it will also not lie indefinitely. But nobody cares. I think that if we can, we'll sell it, and we'll throw the rest away.
And export to a neighboring country through dealers for many farmers and collective farms, according to Konstantin, is the main way to sell the grown crop. In Belarus, he says, "the sale of domestic products has not been established."
Now, Dmitry says, some Belarusian manufacturers don't know how to sell their goods. When the export ban closed the road abroad, people instantly lost buyers.
According to the MART conditions, it is now possible to obtain a license for a one-time export of goods abroad. Dmitry explains that this is unlikely to help many farmers save the rest of their products, because it will also take time to consider the appeal in departments (in MART in agreement with local regional executive committees).