Terrible weather and logistics have brought down the berry market
Muscovites are complaining: prices for fresh strawberries in stores have risen sharply. Just a week ago it cost 350–400 rubles, now you won’t find it cheaper than 700–800 rubles/kg. The traders make excuses: it’s expensive because they supply little, there are almost no berries in warehouses. Unfavorable weather is to blame: in some regions the harvest suffered due to May frosts, in others due to heavy rains. True, the Ministry of Agriculture promises that in mid-June prices will change for the better.
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“Why should they fall, prices? — the saleswoman at the Danilovsky market objects. – Yesterday I called my daughter-in-law in Simferopol, they also have expensive strawberries this year. You can’t buy it for less than RUR 300, even though it’s the height of the season.”
Compared to Moscow prices (700–800 rubles per kilogram of berries or 130 rubles per 250-gram tray), these 300 rubles per kilogram of aromatic Crimean strawberries seem like an attraction of unprecedented generosity. Not to mention the fact that you have to try very hard to even find good quality garden strawberries in Moscow now. The selection of fresh berries in Moscow stores has become much thinner in recent weeks. Mostly retail chains offer packaged blueberries, in some places there are also imported raspberries, strawberries are also mostly imported — large, beautiful, but completely tasteless.
According to Irina, a sales representative of a large metropolitan supermarket, strawberries are out of stock now everything is really very complicated: the reason is that the harvest suffered in many regions of the country.
“Our main suppliers are Crimea and Krasnodar. In Crimea, the berries are already leaving; this year they ripened there much earlier. And in the Krasnodar Territory, the harvest suffered due to heavy rains. At the end of May, local berries usually begin to ripen, but here in the Moscow region and neighboring regions, frost destroyed the entire first harvest, so there are very few early berries — hence the prices. We are waiting for the berries to ripen in Astrakhan. Or we will fill the shelves with imported products, as was the case with eggs in winter. But I wouldn’t particularly hope for a reduction in prices against the backdrop of such an unfavorable environment,” says the expert.
Nevertheless, Russian Minister of Agriculture Oksana Lut promised during Russian-Uzbek negotiations that strawberry prices would go down in June. Why did it happen? Perhaps she managed to negotiate an increase in supplies of berries from sunny Tashkent. There, they say, it is now the height of the season, and berries in local markets cost mere pennies.
However, most Muscovites are looking forward to seeing local strawberries from the Moscow region appear on the shelves of the capital's stores. Although is it worth hoping for it at all, since the May weather played such a trick on regional farmers?
“Garden strawberries were not very badly damaged, unlike other types of berries. We managed to cover its plantations well, and in those places where the frost did penetrate under the covering material and damaged the plants, we treated them with stimulating drugs. So there will be a strawberry harvest. The worst situation is with black currants and raspberries. The young plantings were completely destroyed, the more mature bushes were also damaged, but we hope that they can be saved,” said the Kolomna berry farm.
In Lukhovitsy they were also reassured: the marketing department of the local farm reported that they are starting to sell the first strawberries tomorrow; the berries there were not damaged at all during the May frosts, so the current harvest will be no worse than last year. However, they still refused to name the selling price for strawberries, citing the fact that the situation on the market is difficult, and since there is a shortage, this affects prices.
Other Moscow region suppliers of everyone’s favorite berry products are also preparing for sales. Branded stalls with strawberries have already appeared throughout Moscow, but mass deliveries of local berries are unlikely to begin before mid-June. Then it will be possible not only to freely buy strawberries in the store, but also to pick them yourself right in the field.
Many Moscow region farms pay voluntary pickers with natural products: for example, if you collected 30 kg, you will take 3 kilos (10%) to yourself. True, to collect a bucket of berries, you have to bend your back from dawn to dusk. Although while you are working, you can eat as much as you like, which is what most pickers do.