Market News

In 2015, the fish catch increased by 5% in Russia

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In 2015, the fish catch increased be 5% in Russia. According to Ilya Shestakov, Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation and Head of the Federal Agency for Fishery, the catch of the Pacific and Atlantic herring increased by 4% up to 427,000 MT, the catch of sprats – by 62.5% up to 104,000 MT, the catch of shrimp – by 17% up to 14,400 MT, the catch of mackerel – by 10% up to 212,000 MT. As of December 23 the total catch was 4.33 million tons of fish, which is 5% more than the same date last year.

Shestakov also said that the supply of products to the domestic market increased by 220,000 MT compared to 2014 which helped partly compensate the lack of fish and seafood caused by the Russian food ban. In particular, the volume of herring, supplied to the domestic market, rose by 72% compared to 2014 – in total, more than 230,000 MT, the volume of pollock increased by 26% to 241,000 MT.

www.finmarket.ru

Forecast for 2016 by Aleksei Ulyukaev, Economic Development Minister

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Alexei Ulyukaev, Economic Development Minister, told reporters that the inflation rate in Russia in January would be 0.9-1%, and in annual terms, it would be 10%.

According to the Russian Federal Statistics Service, inflation rate in Russia was 0.2% from January19 to January 25, 2016 . Since the beginning of the year, the rise in prices by 25 January was 0.7%. In annual terms, inflation fell by 25 January to 10,2-10,3% from 12.9% at the end of December 2015.

In the middle of January, Economic Development Ministry told “Interfax” that if the average price for oil was $40 per barrel, inflation rate would be about 8.5%.

The Central Bank in mid-December forecast that inflation rate in 2016 would be 5.5-5.6% if oil price was $50 per barrel, and inflation rate would be 7% if oil price was $35 per barrel.  The Ministry of Economic Development expects inflation to be 6.4% if oil price is $50 per barrel.

www.retailer.ru

Growth of food prices in Russia in 2015

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In 2015, in Russia food prices rose by 14.3%, according to the Russian Federal Statistics Service. At the same time, in the EU, food prices rose 0.3% in 2015. In December, in Russia they increased by 1.4% and in the European Union, on the contrary, they decreased by 0.2%.

In Russia, prices for fruit increased by 28.7%; for sweets (chocolate, honey, candy) – by 23%, for fish and seafood – by 22.9%, for meat – by 7.8%. In the EU, the most notable was the rise in prices for fruit and vegetables.

www.retailer.ru

Belarus became a major exporter of banned products to Russia in 2015

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Belarus became the leader of re-exporting banned products to Russia, according to the statement of the Federal Customs Service. Customs authorities initiated 256 administrative cases on re-export of banned food to Russia country. After Belarus, Lithuania and Poland follow (112 cases), then Ukraine (39 cases) and Kazakhstan (28 cases), Latvia (26 cases), followed by Finland (22 cases) and Estonia (18 cases).

In total, the Russian authorities initiated 23 criminal cases and 550 administrative. In 2015, from August 7 to December 31, the Federal Customs Service detained more than 1 000 tons of banned products in the amount of 138.7 million rubles.

www.fruit-inform.com

Metro AG to retrench and refocus on Europe

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German retailer Metro AG’s global reach across 30 countries was supposed to insulate it from market swings. Instead, turmoil around the world has battered the company, forcing the chain to retrench and refocus on Europe.

With a retail empire of more than 2,000 wholesale, food retail, consumer-electronics stores in Europe, Asia and Africa, Metro has a big presence in emerging markets. But crises in many of these countries, including Russia, Greece, Egypt, over the past few years have hurt its results.

The Russian market has been the key market to Metro AG. In 2013, almost 90% of income came from this region. Up to 2014 the share of the Russian division accounted for a quarter of total operating income of the group. However, after the imposition of sanctions by the European Union and the beginning of the economic crisis in Russia, the situation changed dramatically. After the introduction of the food embargo, Russia Metro could quickly replace some banned products with Russian goods, but because of the collapse of the ruble, Metro’s loss was about €1 billion.

According to Olaf Koch, Metro AG CEO, in 2016 a priority market for the company will be Germany, which last year accounted for 38% of group revenues. In Germany, from January to November 2015 Metro sales grew by 2.8% – that is the maximum growth since 1994.

Money from the sale of assets (Galeria Kaufhof, units in Vietnam, Denmark and Greece) will go to the development of online trading according to Koch.

www.retailer.ru, www.wsj.com

X5 Retail Group is going to sell Iranian products this spring

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This spring, fruits and vegetables from Iran will appear on the store shelves of the X5 Retail Group’s three chains: Pyaterochka, Perekrestok and Karusel, according to a company press release.

The trade relationship between the retailer and Iranian exporters was established alongside the efforts of two countries’ embassies.

X5 Retail Group is interested in importing Iranian tomatoes, carrots, garlic, onions, bananas, watermelon, persimmons, pomegranates, figs, pineapple, pineapple guava and other fruits and vegetables as well as fish and seafood.

www.fruitnews.info

Imports to Russia from non-CIS countries in 2015 fell 36.4%

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According to preliminary customs statistics, in 2015, imports from non-CIS countries to Russia amounted to almost $162 billion, which means that in comparison with 2014, they decreased by 36.4%.

In December 2015, the value of imports from non-CIS countries totaled $14.8 billion, which compared with November 2015, is an increase of 6.2%, while compared with December 2014, the value fell by 28.3%. In December purchases of food products fell by 23.0%, to $ 2.354 billion. Vegetable imports decreased by 21.2%, while imports of fruit increased by 2.9%.

www.freshplaza.com

Russian inflation rate was 12.9% in 2015

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Russian annual inflation for 2015 on consumer prices was set at 12.9 percent, according to Rosstat’s final statistics for the year.

According to earlier predictions by the Russian Economic Development Ministry, inflation was set at 12.5 percent. At the end of December, Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said the inflation rate for 2015 would be approximately 13 percent.

Russia saw an economic downturn in 2014 after the United States and the European Union imposed economic sanctions on Moscow over its alleged involvement in the Ukrainian crisis. The ruble lost about half its value against the dollar.

In late November, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Russia’s economic outlook had been improving, with the country’s economy heading toward stabilization. The IMF predicted Russia’s inflation rate to continue to fall further during 2016.

Last month, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that the inflation in the country would slow down to 6-7 percent in 2016.

www.sputniknews.com

Russia collected record vegetable harvest in 2015

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In 2015, Russia collected a record vegetable harvest – 16.1 million tons compared to 15.5 million tons last year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. This figure is also 12.3% higher than the average for the last five years.

As pointed out by the authority, the increase occurred despite the difficult macroeconomic conditions, as well as drought, floods and fires in some regions.

According to the regional government on December 24, the gross yield of greenhouse vegetable crops totaled 470,900 tons, including cucumbers – 337,000,  tomatoes – 123,400 tons and other vegetables 10,500 tons.

Collection of potatoes totaled 33.6 million tons, which is 15.9% more than the average of the past five years. In 2014, 31.5 million tons of potatoes were collected. The harvest of fruits and berries amounted to 2.9 million tons. This is 9% more than the average over the past five years, but lower than in 2014 (3 million tons).

Finnish businessman develops processing wild berries in Northern Russia

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Finnish businessman Osmo Kolu operates a facility on the Kola Peninsula, in the far northwest of Russia, he is developing gathering and processing wild berries in the region. Kolu says that this initiative, together with the enterprise’s processing capabilities, is a good opportunity in terms of Russia’s strategy to substitute imports with domestic production. The company’s main activities are sorting, processing and freezing berries – cranberries, cloudberries, blueberries, lingonberries, crowberries.

Some berries, for example, cloudberries, are mostly exported to Scandinavia countries, some, such as blueberries, are sold within Russia.

The company is going to expand its activities in Russia as a part of import substitution program.

www.fruitnews.info, www.ria.ru