Author Archives: CrispConsulting

Spar to launch premium format

Written by

Spar Retail – one of the Russian partners of the Dutch Spar grocery retail concern – is planning to open stores in a new premium supermarket format. The concept is ready, and, if it is approved, the Spar first premium class store will open in the Moscow region by the end of 2013. It will operate on a trading space of 600 m2.
Today, the main business of Spar Retail, which now operates in the middle-plus bracket, is represented by 24 outlets in Moscow, the Moscow Province and Vladimir. Each of the stores takes up about 600 m2, and the largest variation – more than 1,000 m2.
In Russia overall, the Spar brand is developed by 11 partners: Spar Retail, Spar Middle Volga, Spar Tula, Spar Vostok, Spar Chelyabinsk, Spar Komi, Spar Severo-Zapad, Spar Tyumen, Spar Krasnoyarsk, Spar Irkutsk and Spar Tomsk.
According to Kommersant, in 2012 the premium subdivision of the retail market in Moscow generated sales worth more than $5bn.

Source: www.russiaretail.com

Smallest pear import in four years

Written by

Russia imported 260,000 tonnes of pears in total between July 2012 and the end of March 2013. This is the smallest import amount in the last four years. According to the Russian Bureau for Statistics this means that the import amount has gone down by 14% compared to last season. Only in the season 2008/09 was the import amount even lower at 230,000 tonnes. The main pear suppliers for the Russian market were Holland, Belgium and Argentina.

Source: www.freshplaza.com

Narody Severa and Bolsheretsk salmon fishery begins MSC assessment process

Written by

The Narody Severa and Bolsheretsk pink, chum, sockeye, and coho salmon fishery operating in the Sea of Okhotsk and Western Kamchatka, Russia has entered into full assessment in the Marine Stewardship Council’s (MSC) certification programme.

The assessment will evaluate the fishery against the MSC principles and criteria for sustainable fishing and, if successful, salmon from the fishery will be eligible to bear the MSC ecolabel.

The target species for this fishery assessment are sockeye, chum, pink, and coho salmon in the Opala and Kihchik Rivers, and pink salmon on the Bolshaya River. The method of catch in the sea is set nets and beach seines are used in rivers. The fishery operates during the return of the salmon stocks to natal rivers, and occurs annually from July to September.

The clients for this assessment are Narody Severa, Ltd. and Bolsheretsk, Ltd. In 2012, catch volumes for all four species were 18,826 tons for Boslheretsk, Ltd. and 11,560 tons for Narody Severa, Ltd. Currently, nearly all of the fish is sold in the domestic Russian market and processed into various products.

Source: www.thefishsite.com

Magnit sales up again

Written by

Russian food retailer Magnit said last week its sales rose by 33 percent in April, year-on-year, to stand at 45.8 billion roubles ($1.5 billion), in line with growth in the previous month.

Magnit, which recently overtook rival X5 as Russia’s biggest grocery chain by revenue, said the April result brought sales for the first four months of the year to 177 billion roubles, an increase of 31 percent.

The company, also Russia’s biggest food retailer by store count, opened 92 stores in April, bringing its total to 7,167 as of April 30.

Magnit had said it plans to grow revenue by between 27 and 29 percent in rouble terms this year, compared with about 34 percent in 2012, backed by a $1.8 billion capital spending programme.

Source: www.freshplaza.com

Russian retail up 4% year on year in Q1 2013

Written by

Retail sales revenues in Russia grew by 3.9% year on year in real terms and were valued at RUB 5.23tr ($164.78bn) in Q1 2013, according to the Russian Federal Statistic Service (Rosstat). This was against a 7.9% y-o-y increase in Q1 2012.
In addition, a 4.4% real yearly increase was registered in March 2013 alone, against 4.2% in January this year. Retail companies and sole traders account for 90.5% of retail trade in Russia in March 2013, with 9.5% shared by retail markets and fairs against 89.5% and 10.5% respectively in March 2012.
What is more, the Russian Ministry of Economic Development has dropped the forecast growth rate for retail from 5.6% to 4.3% in 2013. In 2012 retail sales revenues grew by 5.9% in real terms.

Source: www.russiaretail.com

Russia halted norwegian salmon imports again

Written by

The Russian Veterinary service, Rosselkhoznadzor, has detected harmful microorganisms in salmon and trout imported from Norway and on Friday, May 3, it banned supplies from a Norwegian fish factory – Tobo Fisk AS.

Rosselhoznadzor stated that fish supplies from Norway would be prohibited until the Norweigian Food Safety Authority does not provide a guarantee of the safety of products or a specific plan to improve security within a few weeks.

Source: www.vmdaily.ru, www.thefishsite.com

Russia offers opportunities to suppliers from the fruit and vegetable sector

Written by

Russia import more and more fruit and vegetables all the time, while their own production
decreases. In 2012, the country became the most important sales destination for Spanish fruit and vegetables, according to a report from Business Boost International.

Fruit and vegetable imports by Russia in 2012 were compared to the previous year. The tomato and cucumber import decreased slightly, but the import of peppers was 38% higher and the import of potatoes even increased almost threefold. Also, imports of lettuce, aubergine peach and grapes increased. The apple import – in which area Russia worldwide is in third place – decreased by 18 percent.


It appears from the report that in the area of fruit imports, especially Ecuador (bananas), Poland (apples), Turkey (citrus, grapes and top fruit), China (apples, citrus and top fruit), Argentina (apples, pears and citrus), Chile (grapes) that these products are very important for the country. The total consumption of fruit in the country increases for a number of reasons, one of them being the developing retail sector.

Source: www.freshplaza.com

Russia refuses Turkish strawberries

Written by

The Russian authorities have refused entrance to 18 tons of strawberries from Turkey. The federal inspection service for animal and plant health (Rosselkhoznadzor) have, during a check-up found Californian trips (Frankliniella occidentalis Pergande) on the fruit.

Alexey Alekseyenko, spokesman of Rosselkhoznadzor, mentioned that 18 tons of strawberries were regarded as unhealthy. “From research in our laboratory it appeared that the pest Frankliniella occidedentalis (Californian trips) is present on the strawberries, as quoted by the Turkish newspaper ‘Zaman’. “Therefore it has been decided to return the fruit to Turkey.”

At the moment Russia is the largest importer of raw fruit and vegetables from Turkey. The present incident is not unique in its kind, however. Only a good year ago Russia returned about 50 tons of Turkish tomatoes to the country of origin and in 2010 Russia returned about 52 tons of grapes. Also in total 260 tons of mandarins were returned to Turkish producers. In connection with the EHEC-crisis the EU also blocked the import of Turkish products in 2011.

Source: www.freshplaza.com

Apple prices down

Written by

Apple prices on the Russian market have decreased in the first half of the 2012/13 season, as a result of the country’s accession to the WTO and a record-high domestic production. By the end of December 2012, the average wholesale prices in Moscow were 20% lower (year-on-year). In other regions, prices dropped noticeably as well. In the Voronezh region, for example, prices fell by a third. Market participants expect an increase in apple prices however, thanks to higher demand in the past two weeks.

Russia imported approximately 10,200 tons of Chinese pears from July to November 2012, a number almost 10% higher than last year. Experts from Fruit-Inform link an increase in Chinese exports to Russia to a higher pear production in China this season. The highest import volumes were recorded in November (2,800 tons) and the lowest in July (approximately 1,200 tons). China’s share in total Russian pear imports ranged between 5-7% over the past three seasons. Currently, China is the sixth largest exporter of pears into the Russian Federation. Only Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Lithuania and Argentina export more.

Source: www.freshplaza.com

Poland: apples supplies are almost over

Written by

According to “APK-Inform: vegetables and fruits”, representatives of Polish wholesale companies declare that this week there have been some problems with the purchase of required volume of apples as local farms are short of product.
Because of this shortage, exporters had to increase prices for apples. Depending on the variety, purchasing price asked by export companies was 0,24 – 0,46 euro per kilo.
Just to compare, one week ago it was 40% less.
Source: www.freshmarket.ru