Vegetables

Moscow authorities want to close substandard vegetable warehouses

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Moscow authorities will continue to shut down fruit and vegetable warehouses if their owners do not impose order there, said Mayor Sergey Sobyanin in an interview with “Komsomolskaya Pravda” newspaper.

“If warehouses management meets all the requirements, let them work and fill the market. Unfortunately, lots of such warehouses are far from it – unskilled labor and unsanitary conditions are thriving. Either the owners will put in order their warehouses, or they will have to shut them down “- said Sergey Sobyanin.

He added that the shutdown of Biryulyovo warehouse will not lead to a price increase and any shortage of fruits and vegetables. However, the mayor noted that the current rise in prices for vegetables in Moscow isn’t due only to seasonal price fluctuations, but also to a poor harvest of potatoes and other vegetables.

“Moreover, it was the warehouse in Biryulevo where prices were sent up which led to monopolizing of the area and forcing sellers to trade at overinflated prices. In my opinion, it was all made on purpose “, – said the Mayor.
According to Sergey Sobyanin, trade flows are currently reallocated from the Biryulyovo warehouse to other warehouses. However, in the future logistics centers should appear in Moscow where produsers will sell their products to different kinds of wholesalers.

“Nowadays, we are working on three of such projects. I think one of them is going to be implemented at the beginning of the next year,” – said Sergey Sobyanin.

www.moskva.fruitinfo.ru

Russia may ban import of Polish fruit and vegetables

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Russia’s veterinary inspection service Rosselkhoznadzor may impose a ban on fruit and vegetable imports from Poland because of risks dangers and re-export goods may be supplied to the country, as follows from the agency’s statement, published on Friday.

Rosselkhoznadzor informed the Polish State Plant Health and Seed Inspection Service about its concern over the situation, noting that import restrictions might be imposed unless the Polish side took measures to prevent identified violations.

In 2012 and in the last nine months of 2013 alone, Rosselkhoznadzor exposed 21 batches of Polish vegetable products contaminated with quarantine objects. Besides, there were over 900 cases detected in 2013 of non-compliance with international requirements for phytosanitary documents. The Polish side reportedly provided unreliable or distorted information about the country of origin, and the senders and recipients of goods. The exported products lacked marking. And it is also possible that phytosanitary certificates and accompanying documents were improperly executed.

www.freshplaza.com

Searches at Sofiyskaya warehouses

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The Main Investigations Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation reports that are searches conducted at the vegetable warehouse Sofiyskaya in St. Petersburg. The searches are conducted as a part of a fraud criminal case investigation.

According to investigation officers, the criminal case has been initiated over an unreasonable VAT refund by persons acting on behalf of OOO “Nika-Frukt” in 2011-2012. The VAT refund amounted to almost 80 million rubles from the federal budget of the Russian Federation.

The goal of the searches conducted at the vegetable warehouse Sofiyskaya is to discover and impound any items and documents related to the criminal case, as well as those items which are prohibited from civil circulation.

Also the police are going to check the adherence to immigration laws at the vegetable warehouse Sofiyskaya.

Representatives of the Azerbaijani diaspora, which are doing business at the warehouse Sofiyskaya, have stated that according to their information sources the city authorities are going to close the vegetable warehouse Sofiyskaya as well as the vegetable warehouse on Salova street.

www.regions.ru

Biryulevo warehouse closed until mid-January

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The Moscow city court has found lawful the decision to suspend a vegetable warehouse that turned out to be in the focus of the interethnic conflict in the Moscow district Biryulevo for 90 days. Thus, the appeal from the lawyers of the management company Novye Cheremushki was turned down.

“Checking the arguments, I find the court verdict passed by the judge of the Chertanovsky court lawful,” Judge Aleksander Ponomarev said.

On October 16, the Chertanovsky court satisfied the demand from the territorial branch of the Russian consumer rights watchdog to levy an administrative fine on the closed joint stock company Novye Cheremushki for violation of the legislation in the provision of sanitary and epidemiological wellbeing of people and suspended the vegetable warehouse for three months.

The court verdict took effect on Wednesday.

 

www.itar-tass.com

Closure of Pokrovskaya benefits large retailers

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After the fruit and vegetable warehouse Pokrovskaya in Biryulyovo was closed, “RBC Daily” has talked to those whose businesses are somehow influenced by what is going on in the Russian fruit and vegetable market: wholesalers, restaurant owners , suppliers, managers of still operating fruit and vegetable warehouses, etc.

It turned out that owners of small retail stores, non-chain restaurants and vegetable kiosks are those who have faced the major problems, as they were purchasing their goods directly in Biryulyovo. Right now they still can’t find an alternative source of supply for the same old price.

However, big retail market players are the winners in this situation. They have pointed out that there is an increase in demand, which is, in their opinion, due to the shift of the customers who used to purchase products in convenience stores near their homes and at the market. For example, METRO Cash & Carry say that they are observing a tendency of an increasing demand for fresh vegetables and fruits.

www.retailer.ru

 

Warehouse Pokrovskaya is relocated outside Moscow

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Fruit and vegetable warehouse Pokrovskaya is located in Biryulevo neighborhood in Moscow, that is one of the biggest centers of wholesale trade of fruits and vegetables in Russia. Pokrovskaya warehouse belongs to JSC “Novie Cheremushki”, which, according to media reports, is controlled by stepbrothers Aliaskhab Hajiyev and Igor Isaev from Dagestan. The area of warehouse is more than 120,000 square meters. According to some experts, daily turnover was 20-40 million dollars; according to other estimates, the actual turnover was 3-4 million dollars per day. The exact figure is not known, as more than half of the turnover of Pokrovskaya warehouse belongs to the shadow market.

Biryulevo neihgborhood is just a kilometer from the warehouse. Residents keep complaining about the criminal situation in the area, the high level of illegal migration, bad traffic situation and an enormous amount of waste and garbage.

On October 10, a young man was stabbed by an unknown, presumably from Central Asia or the Caucasus area.
On October 13, more than 1000 people invaded Pokrovskaya warehouse, demanding swift investigation of the murder, the closure of the warehouse and stiffening immigration policy.
Pokrovskaya warehouse was partially closed for cleaning day on October 14. And in the evening it was closed forever. On October 15, it was announced that it would be transferred outside Moscow.
On October 15, the murderer was found and arrested, it was a Azerbaijan native Orhan Zeynalov born in 1982.

Sources: www.ria.ru, www.rosbalt.ru, www.ru.wikipedia.org

Domestic seeds will help lessen EU dependance

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Russia lives in vegetable dependence on Europe where all seeds are purchased. The Federal Service for Veterinarian and Vegetation Sanitary Supervision (Rosselkhoznadzor) repeatedly threatened the European Union with the ban on import of seed grains. In fact, it means digging its own grave. “Without seed potato coming from foreign countries we can pull through only for one year, then everything that involves vegetables will come to a halt,” Vitaly Dunin, the chairman of the Sverdlovsk Union of Producers and Processors of Potatoes and Vegetables, told RusBusinessNews.

According to Dunin, the domestic seed industry was destroyed in the 1990s-2000s and now is in the embryonic state. The Belorechensky Agro-Industrial Complex, CJSC, headed by Dunin, purchases high yielding potato hybrids from the Netherlands. The Dutch grow their seed potatoes in the most agriculturally favorable areas in Italy, Africa and Spain, sorting them by color, quality grade and size.

The Sverdlovsk Region is ready and willing to get out of the European bondage. The Belorechensky Agro-Industrial Complex, together with Kartofel, LLC, and the Agriculture Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Agriculture, prepared a business plan for the breeding center that will allow farmers to reduce their potato seed import by 50% or more. The cost of this center is 300 million rubles. The initiators of the project expect that the federal and regional government authorities will chip in together and allocate 100 million from each side. The Sredneuralsk government gave the go-ahead to the idea, which is now being scrutinized at the Russian Ministry of Agriculture. If everything works out, the breeding center will start operating in 2014.

Source: www.freshplaza.com

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

Russia has become the main market for Spanish fruit and vegetables

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The integration of Russia to the World Trade Organization (WTO) came into effect on August 22 after 18 years of negotiations. Russia has become the main market for the export of fruit and vegetables from Spain.

Exports of fruits and vegetables from Spain to Russia in 2011 stood at 243,027 tons, 47% more than in 2010, making Russia the first non-EU member market for Spanish fruit and vegetables. Spanish vegetable export to Russia in 2011 reached 35,276 tons compared to 23,877 tons in 2010, 48% more, due to increased exports of cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce. Fruit shipments totalled 207,751 tons, compared to 141,259 tons in 2010, 47% more. Peaches, nectarines and tangerines were the most imported fruit by Russia from Spain.

In 2011 Russia accounted for 30% of total exports from Spain to countries outside the EU, which stood at 814,896 tons.

For 2012 Russia still remains the main destination of Spanish fruit and vegetable exports, since in February shipments grew 50% compared to the same months of 2011, totalling 47,362 tons, according to the latest information updated by the Department of Customs and Excise Tax Agency, processed by FEPEX. After the final integration of Russia in the WTO, there is concern from FEPEX to establish an adequate policy to maintain the good performance of exports of fruits and vegetables.

Source: www.freshplaza.com

Since January consumer prices in Russia have grown 5 times more compared to Europe

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For the first half of this year, consumer prices in Russia have grown by 4.5%. On the average, in the EU consumer prices have increased by 0.9% for the same period.

In the U.S., Canada and Turkey, consumer prices have grown by 2%, in the Republic of Korea by 0.7%, and in Norway the deflation rate was 0.4%. The only country, where the inflation rate was higher than in Russia is Belarus, the inflation rate there  is 12% for the period.

According to the Federal State Statistics Service of Russian Federation, the inflation rate of the food segment was one of the highest of all the other sectors in Russia: food prices rose by 5.9% in Russia, in the EU – by 1.6%.

And although price growth for vegetables decreased more than twice, it was still quite high – 8%.

Prices for fruits in Russia fell by 2% in August, in the EU decline in prices for the same period was 3.5%.

Source: www.fruitnews.ru