Why have potatoes dropped in price, but tomatoes have done the opposite
Talks about how everything in our country is becoming more expensive, and there is no escape from rising prices, are not entirely objective. Rosstat calculated the cost of goods and services that changed their price tags last 2023. Yes, many of them have increased in price, some significantly. But there is also good news for consumers. Some things have fallen in price, and even a certain trend towards lower prices has emerged.
Rosstat constantly calculates the cost of about 560 goods and services. Even tourist trips to Belarus were in the area of interest of the statistical department. Which, by the way, went up in price by about 37% last year. Of course, Russians are unlikely to use such a wide range in their daily lives. Therefore, let's focus on those goods without which, as they say, we cannot live — that is, food.
Everything has been said about the chicken egg for a long time, and from the highest stands: this product is the leader in price increases; in 2023, the price tag jumped by 61.35%. In December, according to Rosstat, the average cost per dozen was 132 rubles, and a year earlier it was 81.7. Feel the difference! True, the whole world is now attacking the eggs — the Ministry of Agriculture, the Federal Antimonopoly Service, and even the Ministry of Foreign Affairs… as a result, in January, prices for the product, for the first time in six months, decreased at least slightly.
There are still no buyers at all Last year we were pleased with tomatoes (price increase by 51.1%), pears (by 48.3%), grapes (by 48.2%) and bananas by 47%. The “black list” of goods that showed an increase in price above annual inflation (according to Rosstat — 7.42%) includes pork, chicken, fish and rice.
With bananas, grapes and oranges (which added 34%), everything is clear. Imported deliveries, which means a sharp rise in logistics prices plus a weakened ruble over the past year. As a result, a kilogram of bananas in December cost an average of 148 rubles, although at the beginning of the year it did not go over “hundred.”
It is appropriate to recall here that on June 30, 2021, on a direct line with the president, the head states asked questions: why are bananas from Ecuador cheaper than Russian potatoes? After all, it is grown in a neighboring area and there is no need to charter ships or aircraft to supply it for trade.
But now the situation has changed exactly the opposite. Potatoes, our second bread, cost 15 rubles per kilo in the supermarket, where, as a rule, there are discounts on the product. Without discounts, it’s also inexpensive, from 25 to 40 rubles – washed, red and white, choose to taste. Although the quality of the tubers is approximately the same and why pay more? In general, Russian farmers have pleased more Ecuadorian farmers.
Potatoes, according to Rosstat, fell in price by 15.8% over the year. According to the head of the Potato Union, Tatyana Gubina, this year the cost of tubers will continue to decline; farmers harvested almost a million tons more than our domestic needs.
But not just potatoes… Among the leaders in price reduction in 2023 is buckwheat; it has dropped in price by almost 20%. To tell the truth, we no longer hoped that this would ever happen. Let's remember, three or four years ago — buckwheat went up in price by 30-40% at a time, two kilograms in hand and no more… Meanwhile, for most Russians this product is considered the main one, and it is what many try to stock up on for a “rainy day”. And now buckwheat is showing enviable price stability, falling in price for the second year in a row, in 2022 the decrease was 7.1%.
Oatmeal and pearl barley fell in price by another 10%, and vermicelli by 4.2%. Note that among the cheaper products, there is not a single one that is critically dependent on imports. We can whenever we want…
But what's confusing? Cucumbers, although also not cheap, did not break the record in terms of price rise. And tomatoes are immediately in second place after a chicken egg.. Why? They are grown, one might say, in the same beds…
We have complete self-sufficiency in greenhouse cucumbers; small quantities are purchased only by the Far Eastern regions in China. It turns out to be closer and cheaper than transporting vitamin products across the country.
But for tomatoes… We produce only about 62% of the needs with our own resources. The remaining almost 40% is imported with all the ensuing consequences: logistics and the ruble exchange rate.
Agricultural analysts are convinced that more greenhouses need to be built for greenhouse vegetables in our frosty Russia. But not the capital and expensive ones that are being built today. And light, tunnel, film greenhouses. There are many similar objects in countries even more northern than Russia — say, in Denmark or Finland. Even in winter, apricots and cherries grow there. In general, everything is in our hands, we just need to react more quickly to changes in the market. After all, we once bought cucumbers abroad…
Forecasting is a thankless task, especially if food prices fluctuate. However, most of our experts believe that pork and chicken meat are at risk of a strong rise in price: serious problems have emerged in the poultry industry and they cannot be solved by import supplies alone.
Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Rusprodsoyuz Association Dmitry Leonov is the reason for the decline in prices considers the record production of buckwheat, 490 thousand tons were collected.
“And in two years, the production of this crop has increased by almost 30%,” he says. – The increased prices for tomatoes, pears, grapes, bananas and garlic are mostly imported.
He does not exclude that in the near future the decline in prices for buckwheat will continue. “The average retail prices for buckwheat on January 14 were 87.7 rubles per kilogram, and a week earlier – 87.85. Although for imported vegetables and fruits, taking into account exchange rate dynamics, there are no such prerequisites. For tomatoes, the limiting factor is the intensive development of the greenhouse industry and the growth of domestic supply,” Leonov noted.