Russia, due to the high volumes of food production, can ensure that prices for products within the country are lower than on the world market.

This was announced on Tuesday, April 5, by President Vladimir Putin at a meeting on the development of agro-industrial and fishery complexes.

“Food self-sufficiency is Russia's real competitive advantage, and it should work in the interests of our citizens.

We must protect them from fluctuations in market conditions, from price fluctuations in the global food market,” Putin said.

According to the Russian leader, over the past two years, the situation in this market has become noticeably more complicated.

He stressed that mistakes in the economic, food and energy policies of developed countries led to a sharp increase in food prices around the world.

At the same time, the situation continues to deteriorate, the head of state noted.

“Against the backdrop of minimal food supplies in the world, new sanctions are being introduced, the work of enterprises and the logistics of supplying fertilizers from Russia and Belarus are being blocked, and domestic fertilizer production in the West is falling due to high natural gas prices ... Under the current conditions, a shortage of fertilizers on the global market is inevitable” Putin is sure.

According to the president, not all countries will be able to purchase the required amount of fertilizer for the current season, resulting in a decrease in crop yields.

Under the circumstances, developed countries will begin to actively print money and buy large volumes of food.

Such actions risk exacerbating food shortages in the poorest regions and provoking both a new wave of food price increases and waves of migration.

In this regard, the key task of the Russian authorities for 2022 is to minimize external negative effects for citizens, the head of state stressed.

In his opinion, it is necessary to increase the production and supply of high-quality and affordable food products to the domestic market.

At the same time, the Russian leader called for reducing the dependence of the food industry on imports.

The President recalled that back in 2014, after the imposition of sanctions, Russian manufacturers took advantage of the “window of opportunity” and received a powerful impetus for development.

In recent years, the output of agricultural products in the country has grown by 15%, and food - by more than 25%.

As a result, Russia began to supply more food abroad than it buys.

However, in the current situation, goods should be exported carefully, Putin said.

“This year, against the backdrop of a global food shortage, we will have to be more prudent about food supplies abroad, namely, to carefully monitor the parameters of such exports to countries that are clearly hostile towards us,” the head of state added.

Price pressure

According to the latest estimates of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, over the past year, world food prices have increased by almost 21% and have renewed their historical maximum.

At the same time, in the foreseeable future, the indicator may still grow by 8-22%, experts do not exclude.

In Russia, over the past 12 months, the cost of food has increased by an average of 17.4%.

Cabbage (by 253%), sugar (65.1%), carrots (45.7%), onions (42.7%), buckwheat (41%) and tomatoes (40%) rose the most during this time.

The growth of consumer prices has noticeably accelerated after the introduction of anti-Russian sanctions by Western countries.

This was told to RT by Georgy Ostapkovich, director of the Center for Market Research at the Institute for Statistical Research and the Economics of Knowledge at the Higher School of Economics.

“We have a lot of imported equipment in the agro-industrial complex that needs foreign spare parts.

We also seriously depend on the seed material necessary for growing vegetables.

Packaging materials in our retail are often imported, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to deliver them from abroad, which is why their cost is growing,” Ostapkovich noted.

In addition, a temporary weakening of the Russian currency had a certain impact on prices, experts say.

Against the backdrop of the introduction of restrictions against Moscow, the dollar and euro exchange rates rose briefly to 121 and 132 rubles in early March.

However, now the values ​​have returned to the levels of 83 and 92 rubles.

“The weakening of the ruble is the most sensitive factor in the pricing of goods and services.

At the same time, currency fluctuations negatively affect inflation expectations in the country, ”Andrei Loboda, director of external relations at BitRiver, told RT.

However, as experts note, Russia is now fully self-sufficient in food.

Thus, there are no risks for the formation of food shortages in the country.

“There are no problems with the basic set of food products in Russia for a long time.

We are well supplied with dairy products, eggs, bread and meat.

For a number of products, for example, for exotic fruits, we have difficulties, but in principle we can do without these products, they are easily replaceable.

There are still difficulties with fish and crabs, but even here it is possible to reduce exports and supply more products to the domestic market,” says Georgy Ostapkovich.

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  • © Vladimir Astapkovich

To further protect the domestic food market, the Russian government approved a set of measures.

In particular, the authorities introduced a temporary ban on the export of grain to the EAEU states until June 30, as well as sugar to third countries until August 31.

In addition, the Cabinet of Ministers allocated an additional 25 billion rubles for preferential loans to farmers and 2.5 billion to support the baking industry.

It is planned to allocate another 2 billion rubles to subsidize the transportation of agricultural products.

Following the meeting on Tuesday, Vladimir Putin supported the government's proposal to allocate at least another 153 billion rubles to support the agro-industrial complex.

According to the president, the money should be directed, first of all, to preferential short-term and investment loans for the industry.

The authorities also plan to spend 5 billion rubles to support seed and breeding centers.

Along with this, the head of state instructed to significantly increase the domestic production of agricultural machinery, food equipment and components for the construction of fishing vessels.

At the same time, Russia does not yet plan to switch to licensing the export of fertilizers.

“We have no desire to harm anyone.

In no case.

You just need to carefully deal with it all.

And with logistics, and with insurers, with everyone.

This is the deficit today.

The deficit will be taken.

Nobody wants to die of hunger.

We need to carefully look at these problems and solve them based on our own interests,” Putin stressed.