Market News

Dalnie Dali grocery chain expands

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Agro-Belogorye plans to almost double its Dalnie Dali grocery chain store count in 2013, from 52 to 100 outlets. Ten or 12 stores are to open in Belgorod Province, while the other outlets are expected to appear in Voronezh, Kursk and Nizhny Novgorod Provinces.
Agro-Belogorye Group is a Belgorod-based company, operating 17 piggeries, two compound feed processing plants, four cereal companies, a meat-processing plant and a trading house in Belogord Province. In 2011 the company generated revenue of RUB 23.6bn ($782.9m) with a net profit of RUB 2.2bn ($73.1m).

Source: www.russiaretail.com

130 new stores for Verny

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Verny, a grocery retail chain of soft discounters, will have approximately 130 new outlets in 2013. In Q4 2012 the company launched 33 stores in Moscow, the Moscow Province, St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Province. The first Verny store is due to open in Yekaterinburg in the summer of 2013. Further launches will take place in six regions in which the company has not previously operated. In addition, Verny is preparing to open two distribution centres in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
As Retail Update Russia reported on a previous occasion, the Verny brand is developed by the former managers of the X5 Retail Group, along with Andrey Rogachev, the founder of the Pyaterochka and Karusel grocery networks (both brands are now owned by X5). The first outlets began operations in October 2012.

Source: www.russiaretail.com

Конкурс от груш США

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Конкурс проводит “Бюро по грушам США” на сайте www.babyblog.ru/photoconcurs

С 18 февраля по 3 марта ждем фотографии, на которых будут запечатлены дети в возрасте до 15 лет.

Непременное условие участия – наличие груши США на фото.

4 марта будут подведены итоги конкурса и выявлены 3 победителя, которые получат подарочные карты номиналом в 5000,3000 и 2000 рублей одного из детских магазинов города.

Приобрести груши можно в супермаркетах вашего города. Узнать груши США можно по наклейке, на которой будет присутствовать логотип.

Подробные условия конкурса здесь: http://www.babyblog.ru/photoconcurs

Russian imports of vegetables amount to 1.4 million tons

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The analysts of “The Technology of Growth” give the figure of 1.4 million tons of fresh vegetables and herbs imported to Russia over the past year in their study “The state and the potential of the market of greenhouse vegetables and herbs in the Central Federal District of the Russian Federation.”

According to experts, the reason for such plentiful supply is clear. The Russians are becoming more concerned about their diet and health, but the greenhouses are unable to provide for year-round consumption inside the country. And this trend will continue in the near future, as consumer demand for off-season tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers and herbs keeps growing every year.

Source: www.freshplaza.com

Fewer pears supplied to the Russian market from the Netherlands

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Over the past six months of the current season, Dutch suppliers exported about 27 tons of pears to Russia, which is 1.6 times less than in the same period last year. Let us recall that from July to December of 2011, about 43 thousand tons of fruit of this species were receives by our country from the Netherlands.

However, despite the decline in imports, the Netherlands were able to keep their leading position among suppliers of pears in Russia.

The reason for decline in exports was the low yield of the fruit this season. According to industry analysts estimate of this European country, farmers managed to collect on average 25% -35% fewer pears, than in the earlier period.

Source: www.fruitnews.info

Bulgaria has reduced the supply of pears to Russia in 2.5 times

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Bulgaria continues to lose its position in the Russian market of pears. In the first six months of 2012/13 season, this country exported to the Russian market only 10.8 tons of pears, which is 2.5 times less than in the same period of the previous season.

Besides, this volume was the smallest in the last five seasons. At the moment Bulgaria is only in seventh place in the ranking of pear suppliers at the market of the Russian Federation, while from July to December 2011, it was confidently present in the top three. It is also worth noting that Bulgaria has retained the third largest index of pears import to Russia during the last three seasons. Let us recall that for the July-December 2011 Russia imported 26.9 tons of pears from Bulgaria.

It’s becoming harder for Russian producers to compete with Poland

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During the recent week the sales of domestic apples of  green varieties has substantially declined. In winter the demand for them is much smaller than for red varieties of fruit. The reason for this was the influx of Polish imports, which come to the Russian market in large quantities, and they are mainly red varieties.

To date, the maximum cost of a kilogram of green apples grown in Russia is about 22 rubles. However, a significant portion of transactions are performed at 15-20 rubles per kilogram. The value of Polish fruit at this time is fixed at 24-25 rubles for the same weight.

The situation is more favorable with the sales of domestic apple of red varieties in the range of 22-27 rubles per kilogram. However, Russian manufacturers believe that if in the near future the pressure from Poland will not decrease, Russian suppliers will be forced to significantly reduce the prices.

Source: www.fruitnews.info

Flush full year at Russia’s Magnit

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Russian retailer Magnit is closing in on market leader X5, reporting a bullish full-year performance for 2012 with significantly higher figures across the board. A rash of store openings and higher margins underpinned the success, seeing EBITDA increase by 71.62 per cent and net revenue up 33.6 per cent to RUB 448 billion (roughly €11 billion).

Analysts have branded Magnit the best-performing grocer in Russia, as well as one of Europe’s most profitable, with market share reported to be around 5 per cent. The group expanded its store network by 1,575 outlets during the fiscal year, including 1,057 supermarkets and neighbourhood stores and 36 hypermarkets, bringing its total tally to 6,884 stores.

2012 net income increased by 103.15 per cent, coming in at RUB 24,994.79 million (roughly €621 million) with a 5.26 per cent rise in like-for-like sales.

Magnit’s 126 hypermarkets delivered a stronger performance than its supermarkets and neighbourhood store division with like-for-like growth of 11.43 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively.

CEO Sergey Galitskiy declared the group’s ambition to increase its market share, with a busy 2013 scheduled. “We are already thinking of 2013 and have set a challenging task for ourselves to open over 1,100 convenience stores, over 60 stores of the hypermarket and Magnit family format, and 250 cosmetics stores. We also hope that this year we will launch four distribution centers and buy at least 1,200 trucks,” he said.

Source: www.freshplaza.com

Many of Russian State Standards will be replaced with WTO-regulations

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From 2013, due to the entry of Russia  into the WTO and its inclusion into the Customs Union, a technical regulation is getting into force in Russia, which establishes mandatory requirements for many types of products.

Thus, in June technical regulations of the Customs Union will be issued, on food safety, its labeling and other aspects of the production, processing and marketing.

In Russia, many qualitative indices of fruit and vegetable products are fixed in state standards, which from summer 2013 will become the evidence base for adopted technical regulations.

Source: www.fruitnews.ru

JFC CEO in fraud investigation

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The home of JFC CEO, Vladimir Kekhman has been searched as part of a fraud case, Russian media reported on Friday. Kekhman holds the majority stake in JFC, the largest fruit importer in Russia.
Investigators from the Interior Ministry’s St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region Department have also searched the company’s offices and warehouses on Thursday.
“In 2010-2012, a group of JFC executives and shareholders obtained large loans from several major banks to fulfill contracts with nonexistent commercial firms and affiliates. In February 2012, JFC’s management filed for bankruptcy with a commercial court, so as not to pay back these loans,” the investigators said.
The damages done to the company’s creditors are estimated at over 10 billion rubles (over $331 million), they said.
A criminal case was opened after a complaint was filed by the company’s primary creditors, including Sberbank, Bank of Moscow, Raiffeisen, and Uralsib, a source at the Interior Ministry told Vedomosti.
A Sberbank representative confirmed the filing of the complaint with the ministry and estimated JFC’s total debt at roughly 6 billion rubles (over $198 million).
Other creditors refused to comment. Kekhman did not respond to a Vedomosti request for information.

Source: www.freshplaza.com