News on Potato Stats, Trade, Prices from the Russian Federation

The delivery of Chinese potatoes to Primorsky Krai has been resumed. From March 20 to March 26, the first batch of Chinese potatoes weighing 87.4 tons arrived, the Primorsky Interregional Department of Rosselkhoznadzor reported.

A deal to export 2,000t of Scottish seed potatoes to Russia has been scrapped by PepsiCo following criticism of the arrangement. The food and drinks company said "a couple of lorries" had already left Scottish farms this week, but following discussion with growers, the decision had been made to stop future shipments.

Earlier today, McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski announced in an email to staff and franchisees that McDonald's will temporarily close its restaurants and pause operations in Russia.

In the Russian potato market, the upward trend in prices continues, and they just reached a record level over the past few years, analysts of the EastFruit project report.

In Russia, HZPC is using an unconventional strategy to secure its potato trade for the future: in 2019, a small breeding company was set up to provide Russian contract growers with pre-basic seed potatoes. In 2020, the production of mini-tubers was added too.

EastFruit analysts predict that Russia may sharply increase the volume of imports of potatoes from Egypt in the 2020/21 season.

The Potato Union of Russia sent a letter to the Association of Retail Companies (AKORT) and the Union of Independent Networks (SNS), in which it proposed introducing “economy-class” tubers into the assortment.

In the first nine months of this year, Russia exported 254,8 thousand tons of potatoes (food and seed), which is almost 36% more than in the same period last year.

Since the start of autumn, potato producers in the regions of Russia have been facing many challenges, new and old. In the Russian Federation, the average annual volume of potatoes used for food purposes is estimated to be at 13-14 million tons, which makes potato one of the most important crops in Russia. In this article, we present information about the potato situation in various regions of Russia.

The Moscow region is the leader in potato processing in the Russian Federation in the first half of this year. This was announced by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Andrei Razin.

Potato production in the Moscow Oblast in 2018 increased by 37% compared to the volumes of the previous year.

In Russia, potatoes have hit record high prices due to supplies being imported and a lack of vegetable storage.

In a reversal of policy, the Russian government last week modified its prohibition on several types of food imports from the United States, Canada, the EU, and other Western countries to allow for the importation of seed potatoes.

Vladimir Putin has banned the import of agricultural goods from countries that have imposed sanctions on Russia in a tit-for-tat move that deepens the economic standoff between the Kremlin and the west.

Russia will start importing Dutch seed potatoes again, once a quality inspection has deemed them suitable. This could mean a 10 million euro export opportunity for companies.

The expectations were positive, but the doors to Russia are still closed for the European potato and seed potato sector.

Russia is a huge producer of potatoes and is the third largest potato producer in the world. In 2012, Russia produced 29.5 million metric tons of potatoes. Only 13% is produced by agricultural enterprises: 79% is produced by private households.

n September, Russia imported 15,259 tons of potatoes with a value of 5 million dollars.