X5 Retail Group N.V., one of Russia’s largest retailers is planning to open about 540 new stores in 2011. Within the development strategy the company will focus on towns with more than 10,000 people. The majority of new stores will be opened organically, but the development package will also include acquisition deals. X5 is interested in all the chains operating in the focus regions and they keep in touch regarding potential takeovers.
Source: www.retail.ru
According to a USDA (Foreign Agricultural Service by the Department of Agriculture of US) study, citrus is the second most popular fruit in Russia, following the apple.
From 2000 when 471,861 metric tons (MT) of citrus got into the country the import rose to 1,480,695 MT in 2010, a year when the market value for citrus in Russia was around 1.2 billions.
On the other hand, statistic data from the Statistic Committee of the Russian Federation indicates that, in 2010, the consumption per capita of citrus was of 7.3kg, meaning some 20% more than in 2008.
“The market is far from saturated, it has a very good potential for expansion”, concludes the report. Main citrus suppliers of the Russian market are Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, South Africa and China.
Source: www.freshplaza.com
Last year Russia imported 200,000 tones of fresh fruits, vegetables and dried fruits from Uzbekistan worth about $300 mln. Uzbekistan’s fruit and vegetables export volume to Russia exceeded export volumes of such traditional suppliers of the Russian Federation as Poland, China, Spain, Argentina, Morocco, South Africa and Italy. Ukraine is strengthening its positions in the Russian market for fruits and vegetables too.
Ukraine has already outstripped Spain, Egypt, Belgium, France and Germany in export value of vegetables to the Russian Federation. Russia is also increasing imports of Ukrainian apples. “In the season 2010/11 Ukraine entered the group of top-four biggest suppliers of apples to Russia and outstripped its major European competitors such as the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, France, Serbia, Belgium and Hungary”, Tetiana Getman, Head of Fruit-Inform Project, said during the First International Conference “Apple Business of Ukraine, Russia and Moldova – 2011”.
Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Agriculture also expect the country’s exports of fruits and vegetables to Russia to grow by 20-25%.
Source: www.freshplaza.com
Grocery chain Sedmoy Kontinent (Seventh Continent) has reported strong growth in profit and sales for the first half of the year, helped by continued expansion.
For the January-June period, net profit more than tripled to 2.03 bn roubles (€48.5m), from 668.9 m roubles last year, while revenue jumped up 23.4% to 24.19bn roubles (€578m).
The company attributed the growth in sales to the addition of new outlets as well as “the improving welfare of the country’s population, and the Moscow administration’s policy for developing civilized food trade instead of product markets”. Profits were helped by lower commodity costs and a better pricing policy, as well as savings on labour expenses.
Source: www.freshplaza.com
The measure, which was adopted on June 22nd by the Russian Federation, was imposed to prevent the entry of the bacteria into Russia. With the elimination of this measure, which came into force on August 9th, the EU exports of fresh horticultural produce to Russia are exempt from the obligation to submit a certificate of absence of E. coli.
The current situation for exports is the same as before the outbreaks of E. coli, based on compliance with the memorandum signed between the European Commission and the Russian Federation in February 2008, which requires from each shipment exported a “document of use of plant protection products” and in the case of citrus, nectarines, peaches and pears, a “security certificate”, showing the result of the analysis.
Source: www.freshplaza.com
The volume of the fast-food market occupies a relatively modest part of the total public catering turnover. Despite this fact its share is constantly growing. In 2010 the fast-food market almost reached 100 bn roubles and it accounted for 12.8% of the public catering market.
As per new marketing research “Russian public catering market. The current situation and forecast”, carried out by Intesco Research Group, the share of the Moscow fast-food market in 2010 amounted to 40% of the whole Russian market, which is much higher than Moscow’s share in the total public catering turnover. The fast-food market in Moscow with dozens of new chains is very dynamic and adds 25-30% annually.
Source: www.retail.ru
The full report Prognosfruit 2011 was presented in Slovenia, which details the projected harvest of non-EU countries in the northern hemisphere. Russia projects an apple harvest around 1.9 mln tons, reflecting a growth of 4% compared with last season. In absolute terms this growth translates into about 80,000 additional tons in the market.
Russia annually imports an average of 1.3 mln tons of apples, mainly from Europe (EU 15).The southern hemisphere supplies Moscow and St. Petersburg with more than 100,000 tons per year, a volume that varies with existing domestic crops.
Pear production is estimated at 50,000 tons, a decline of 9% over the 2010 season.
Last year Moldova exported nearly 180,000 tons of apples to Russia and hopes that this volume is maintained this season, despite the projected decline in production.
Ukraine is also becoming one of the largest suppliers to Russia and it is expected to export about 150,000 tons of apples this year, taking into account that the harvest will increase by 15% and exceed for the first time one million tons.
The good quality that is expected for the Polish apple harvest also anticipates a possible increase in the share of trade in fresh apples and this would also open the door to increased exports to Russia.
Source: www.freshplaza.com
The decision to ban Egyptian seed and vegetables export to Russia came after experts from the European Commission said the E.Coli bacteria that hit Europe in the earlier this year began in the north Africa country.
To date Egypt is the only remaining country whose vegetables are banned for export in Russia. This was reported by Gennady Onischenko – head of Russia’s Rospotrebnadzor (sanitary watchdog agency). There are no significant changes in Russian import to Egypt yet.
Source: www.tks.ru
Разгар сезона начнется в Калифорнии ближе к концу августа -началу сентября, когда начнется сбор сортов Гала и Гренни Смит, основных сортов, в которых заинтересован Российский рынок. В сентябре начинается сбор яблок Фуджи, отличающихся своей сочностью, а с октября начнут собирать яблоки сорта Пинк и остальные более поздние сорта.
According to Fruit-Inform analysts, Russia’s share in the global fruit imports has reached almost 8% in terms of value and even more in terms of volume in the recent years due to rapidly increasing consumption. As Russian economy is recovering there is a trend to consume higher quality products. As of today the size of the Russian fresh, frozen and dried fruit imports is estimated at nearly US $6bn per annum.
The leading import items are citrus fruits, apples and bananas, which account altogether for 55% of all imports. Table grapes are becoming more popular during winter and spring, which provides good opportunities for suppliers from Southern Hemisphere (Chile and South Africa being key suppliers). Similar trend was noted for stone fruits, specifically for sweet cherries. Fresh stone fruits and grapes account for nearly 22% of all fruit imports already.
Source: www.freshplaza.com