The spending power of middle-class shoppers in Russia has been reduced in the last couple of years, so Andrey Volkov from Tropic group said that importers have to play it safe with what they purchase and are more hesitant to introduce new exotics. People are only really buying the basic fruit and vegetables, ie. bananas, citrus, potatoes, cabbage.
Tropic group is one of the top 5 importers in Russia, and their largest importer of Moroccan tomatoes.
Andrey reports that there have been a lot of problems in the last several years with bad companies who take large volumes of fruit and veg and then ‘disappear’ into thin air without paying a cent, leading to a large volume of unpaid debts.
“The supermarkets are more protected from these problems because they have properties and are able to absorb the losses. We have to be vigilant and very aware of who we are dealing with, especially in the last 5 years.” continued Andrey.
But it’s not all doom and gloom; “My prediction is that the market will be cleaned up in the coming years, survival of the fittest, and reach the same kind of level as the rest of Europe, with a few major importers, with a lot of the medium importers disappearing.” said Andrey. “That is something positive we can take out of the crisis, I am expecting that the wrong people should disappear. It’s just like the wild, wild west – only the strongest will survive.”