Russian potato market: prices are steadily increasing

In the Russian potato market, the upward trend in prices continues, and they have already reached a record level over the past few years, analysts of the EastFruit project report. Due to heavy rains, Russian producers are now experiencing difficulties in harvesting potatoes, which led to a significant decrease in their supply on the market and, accordingly, a rapid rise in prices.

At the moment, Russian farmers are selling potatoes at 28-36 RUB/kg (0.39-0.50 USD/kg), which is on average 30% more expensive than last week. Despite the rise in potato prices, the demand in Russia remains quite high. Wholesale companies continue to actively purchase potatoes for storage.

In addition, there are imported potatoes from Belarus and Kazakhstan on the Russian market. But, according to market participants, the volume of imported potatoes is not enough to meet the current demand.

At the same time, prices for imported products are also growing amid increased demand and shortage of local potatoes. These days imported potatoes are sold no cheaper than 23-25 ​​RUB/kg (0.32-0.34 USD/kg).

Prices for potatoes in the Russian Federation are already 2.3 times higher than at the end of September 2020. At the same time, most of the key market players assume there might be a further rise in the price, since the potato yield has noticeably decreased in the current season, and many producers are currently holding sales, hoping that potato prices will rise even more.