In 2018, potatoes will generally rise in price, experts predict. In December, the price has already risen by a third. Now prices are at a very impressive level, explained Svetlana Kuleshova, an expert at the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies. But there will be no shocking growth, since February, imported products will begin to arrive, she reassures.
With this solution, the problems do not agree in consumer cooperation. “We are transporting potatoes from Egypt, China, and at the same time there are a lot of them in small farms,” complains the chairman of the board of the Central Union of Consumer Societies (Centrosoyuz) Dmitry Zubov.
Previously, rural and regional consumer societies (general store, raypo), through their network of procurement offices, actively purchased potatoes from the population and delivered them to counters. Now the situation is different. There is no one to buy potatoes and there is no place to store them. In addition, the population grows a variety of potatoes, which are often contaminated with diseases, writes rg.ru.
Meanwhile, households account for about 80 percent of the country's total gross potato production. But over the past decade, crops have declined significantly. As a result, since 2015, the supply of domestic potatoes in the country has fallen by 15 percent and may decline further, the Accounting Chamber noted. Commodity farms are ready to replace the falling volumes of "private traders", says Alexey Krasilnikov, executive director of the Potato Union.
Just increase potato production does not make sense, the market is already saturated. “As a result, 20-30 tons of each hundred disappears somewhere, roughly speaking, it rots,” the expert says. There is no place to store domestic potatoes. There is another question. “Producers, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Industry and Trade should consider creating a targeted program for processing potatoes and vegetables,” Krasilnikov suggests. Consumer cooperatives offer their solution.
The Central Union is developing a project for the construction of modern small logistics centers throughout the country, aimed at small agricultural producers. Vegetables will be stored in the right conditions, there will be control at the entrance so that infected tubers do not get into it, they say in the Central Union.
Also, logistics centers will conduct pre-sale preparation of potatoes for stores - wash, sort and pack it. “As soon as we solve this issue, the amount of our own potatoes will grow immediately, we will export it,” Zubov promises.
Source: http://prodmagazin.ru/