Why are Russian counters full of imported vegetables?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

In fact, the issue of greater involvement of domestic products in trade networks is solved quite simply - it would be the desire of the government.

In general, all retail retail chains, according to their structure, can be divided into two large groups: with rigidly centralized management (for example, "Auchan") and with franchising (for example, "Pyaterochka").

In the first case, the assortment, prices, suppliers, design, etc. are set uniform for all outlets. In the second, one or another level of freedom is allowed.

In the West, a more or less general rule has long been introduced for franchised stores: a certain percentage of products must be local or regional production. By the way, stores actively use this fact in advertising, appealing to the patriotism of customers.

And with stores of the first, rigidly hierarchical type, it is, of course, necessary to negotiate separately.

But in both cases, the government has very real leverage to oblige all retail chains to sell at least 20% of locally produced food. For example, setting some tax credits on local goods sold. The government is more than compensating for the loss of income by stable production of products by local farmers and cooperatives, which is one of the important elements of regional development.

In general, the problem highlighted in the proposed publication is quite easy to solve - it would have been the good will of the Russian government.

Why are Egyptian potatoes and Chinese garlic in Russian stores, and not our vegetables?

Sorting out who stands between our farmers and consumers

There is nowhere to put your tomatoes

You look at the shelves of retail chains and you are amazed: like import substitution in our country and vegetables, the country began to produce more, but here it is still - Turkish peppers and tomatoes, Israeli eggplants, Chinese garlic. And okay there is ginger covered with legends, but can we really not even grow potatoes, why are we dragging it all the way from Egypt?

No, everything seems to be fine - the well-known resource where farmers offer their products is packed with offers. Excellent Bryansk potatoes at 6, 50 per kilo, Mordovian at 6, Podolsk at only 5 rubles. Lots - from 20 tons.

There are cucumbers, and zucchini with peppers, and the same radish. There was an oversupply of tomatoes during the crisis. It would seem that retail chains have only to whistle, as thousands of native farmers will flood their stores with quality vegetables. And cheaper, and not far away. But here is Turkey, Israel, Egypt, China.

What's happening?

Is it more profitable to work with foreigners?

Representatives of retail chains often explain - they say, they would be glad to take bark potatoes from our farmers, but many of them give out small quantities. The giants of the store business, on the other hand, need large volumes and guarantees that the goods will be delivered stably over a long period of time.

- Once I was at a meeting with the governor of the Volgograd region, a farmer stood up: I have so many tons of potatoes in the field, take it! - cites the example of Andrey Karpov, executive director of the Association of Retail Market Experts. -I immediately write off with the networks - will you take how much you need? It turns out that the entire volume of this farmer's potatoes is the one-day turnover of Pyaterochka in the region. That is, you need 365 such farmers to meet the demand!

In addition, the farmer, as a rule, can offer this or that product in his field - come and pick it up. But in order for it to get to the store, it needs to be collected, processed, packaged, concluded contracts, received all the necessary accompanying documents, and the like. The farmer often does not have this …

So it turns out that sometimes it is profitable for the network to conclude one contract with one operator, which will supply this volume all year, than 365 contracts with local farmers - can you imagine how many employees are needed to service these contracts?..

Israeli farmers work to order

Very often the way of a foreign vegetable to a Russian counter looks like this. Many foreign farmers, realizing that they will disappear one by one, have long ago strayed into cooperatives, when 10-15 farms are working together to form a large batch of this or that vegetable. At the same time, they have clear instructions - what kind of variety to plant, what size should be and what to spray. In the same foreign "collective farm" he washes, packed and shipped.

Moreover, the farmers know in advance who will buy it and in what quantity - the cooperative has received the corresponding order from the distributor. Which, in turn, has already agreed to deliver it to the network on schedule. With the agreed quality and volumes. The party is provided with good legal support, in case of a breakdown - heavy fines.

- Russia has one more problem - says the director of the Fruit and Vegetable Union of Russia Mikhail Glushkov. -We can produce as much as we like, but we cannot preserve it all - there are no good repositories. We get the harvest in the fall, until February it somehow lies, and then our own stocks begin to run out, and we begin to actively import.

Impossible to get online?

Yes, and there are complaints about shops and farmers

- In retail chains, as a rule, there are agricultural holdings, - convinced the head of the Association of Peasant (Farming) Farms of the Kaluga Region Babken Ispiryan … - The chains have a lot of conditions: from fixed volumes to discounts on promotional products. It is simply impossible for a small manufacturer to cope with all this.

- Everything is not easy there, - commented on "Komsomolskaya Pravda" one of the former managers of a well-known network.- The same foreign suppliers can vitally interest a specific representative of the Russian trade network, so that it is their product that gets on sale. For example, a good sum on his account - there were many scandals on this topic.

Farmers have no money for cooperatives

Nevertheless, everyone agrees on one thing - it will not work to fill stores with only Russian vegetables until our farmers, following the example of their foreign colleagues, begin to unite in cooperatives. Moreover, with powerful government support, as in the same foreign countries. However, there are still few such examples.

- Russian farmers are able to unite, but there is no proper support for those who can play the role of an intermediary between the producer and retail chains, - states Babken Ispiryan.

- Yes, everyone offers us to unite and create cooperatives, but this requires good money. Let's say we collect 50 farmers. To create a cooperative and a distribution center with it, you need to invest about 1 billion, which means you will need to chip in 20 million. But if a farmer sells 10 million worth of produce a year, he has nowhere to get that 20 million to chip in. This is what it all comes down to.

The Ministry of Agriculture has programs to support such cooperatives. Now let's compare: last year, 20 million rubles were allocated in our region to support such associations, and only one of the agricultural holdings in our region received 300 million …

VISUALLY

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