In September 2010 the Russian Government decided to abolish potato import duties. The Government expected to saturate the domestic market with inexpensive in imported product. At the same time, European growers, having faced harvest drop and the growing demand from Russia increased the prices dramatically.
According to the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR), Russia can import up to 500,000 tonnes of European potatoes during the season 2010/2011. In the recent years Russia has imported about 200-250 thousand tones of European potatoes. The largest shippers in 2009 were the Netherlands (119,000 tonnes), Azerbaijan (84,300 tonnes), Egypt (59,000 tonnes) and China (40,400 tonnes).
According to the estimations of the Ministry of Agriculture, the harvest shortage in 2010 will amount to 4 million tones. The experts say that the 2010 potato crop in Russia will be 22 million tones with annual demand of 29-32 million tones. Last year Russia harvested 28.8 million tones.
Source: www.retailer.ru