How white potatoes become “golden”: peasants blame trade, retailers blame farmers
According to Rosstat, potatoes, our “second bread,” rose in price by 33.7% in June. Not weakly — more than all other food products. Of course, we haven’t seen anything like this in the consumer market. However, the fact is that in May tubers also became more expensive – by 49.7%. In total, in two months the price of second bread increased by more than 80%. Moreover, we are talking about the months when, as a rule, prices for vegetable crops begin to creep down, due to the seasonal factor. What's wrong with the potatoes on the shelves? «MK» went through retail chains.
A month ago, when potatoes rose in price by almost 50% in May, agricultural officials refused to comment. They all said that the harvesting of tubers was just beginning, that the harvest had not yet been formed and that it was too early to talk about prices. “Call me in a month, then we can discuss the current prices.”
It seems that prices have worked out, but officials are again silent. Rosstat reports for them. At the end of June, potatoes increased in price by another 33.7%. Even in the first week of July, from the 2nd to the 8th, it managed to rise in price by another 1.6%.
Frankly, I can’t even believe these numbers. A couple of weeks ago, in a supermarket for a borscht set, I bought normal tubers of the new harvest for 40 rubles per kilo. They can’t cost 55 rubles today! Is the statistics department exaggerating? After all, the battle for the harvest, if not everywhere, then in the southern regions of Russia, is in full swing! As it turned out, upon closer acquaintance with the situation, he is not exaggerating, but rather understating it!
In one supermarket I found tubers from last year’s harvest for 35 rubles per kilogram. It is clear what quality they are — already soft, with traces of diaper rash. After all, the heat is incredible, and the tubers have been in storage for more than a year. But buyers actively poured them into plastic bags. “Cheap,” one lady advised me. — Take it while you can!
There are a lot of potatoes in three other large chain stores, choose to suit every taste. And for frying, and for boiling, and white, and red, whichever you want. But the prices… a 3-kilogram frying bag costs 289 rubles, that is, a kilogram is more than 90 rubles. The same package, but for cooking, 250 rubles. White washed — 99 rubles. Sorry, these are not white potatoes, but gold ones!
Muscovites don’t even remember such prices for “second bread.”
“For some reason there are no potatoes on sale,” says one customer another. – Usually there are discounts on vegetables in our store.
We search together and find: a large box of potatoes at a discount. 50 rubles a kilo, but marked down by 23%. But we haven’t forgotten that in both 2023 and 2022 potatoes were sold all year round (winter and summer) for 19-20 rubles. It was a real vegetable Klondike.
“I sell my potatoes from the field for 17 rubles,” says Alexey, a farmer I know from the Lipetsk region. – I don’t know how much it costs in the store. Most likely, prices are driven up by trade.
— How has the cost of cleaning gone up? There are no more cheap migrant workers. And those who remain do not agree to work for less than 5 thousand rubles a day. Two years ago, I paid them 1.5 thousand a day for working in the fields. Plus the cost of diesel fuel, spare parts…
— Where? The May frosts did not affect me, the plantations were not damaged, I thought I was lucky. So now there is a drought. In July, potatoes need to be watered every day, but there is no rain. Those who have irrigation in their fields, the easier it is. But they spend a lot on water. They sell their potatoes for 25 rubles per field. Most likely, potatoes will become a little cheaper in September – the seasonal factor will still have an impact there. And then the prices for it and other vegetables will go up again.
In turn, retail chains suggest looking for price increases for “second bread” in the field, and not in stores.
< p> “Potatoes have never been a product on which chains make money,” Shamil Magomedov, deputy executive director of the Russian Market Retail Association, told MK. – This is a product that attracts traffic because the nominal price is comparatively cheap. For retail chains, potatoes are a socially significant product, and we keep a markup on them of no more than 10-15%. Also take into account the general inflation in the country; it cannot be that everything is becoming more expensive, but tubers are not. But in this case, you need to look at the field, they set the price there.
In a word, prices are rising by leaps and bounds, buyers are happy to choose tubers that have been lying around since last year. Although not the first freshness, they are cheap. And judging by the responses of the interlocutors, no one increases the prices. It seems that this suits everyone — except the population.