“In any incomprehensible situation, run for buckwheat!” – says folk wisdom
Photo: Alexander CHERNYKH
My heart sank: buckwheat is getting more expensive! But, according to the forecasts of the Institute of Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR), in a month buckwheat on the wholesale market can increase in price from 41 thousand rubles to 45 thousand rubles per ton.
Buckwheat for our people is a strategic product. “In any incomprehensible situation, run for buckwheat!” – says folk wisdom (although it is still difficult to call it wisdom). So, is it worth stocking up on buckwheat urgently? Let’s try to figure it out.
But first, let’s remember what happened last spring. People then swept off the shelves everything that doesn’t lie well and is stored for a long time: toilet paper, pads, sugar, and buckwheat, of course. April 2022 turned out to be at an altitude of buckwheat – 93 thousand rubles per ton on the wholesale market.
Then the situation stabilized. And to date, wholesale prices of buckwheat have fallen to 41 thousand rubles per ton. Should we wait for previous registrations?
“The prices of buckwheat and other products are rising due to the weakening of the ruble,” explains Arkady Zlochevsky, president of the Russian Grain Union. – These are purely inflationary processes, but they are not so critical. Buckwheat will definitely not return to last year’s figures. It just doesn’t stand a chance because of a very good harvest and decent stocks in the warehouses.
The Ministry of Agriculture gives its portion of the sedative, claiming that in 2023 the area planted with buckwheat and rice is greater than last year.
“Buckwheat production may also exceed last year’s level of 1.22 million tonnes, and will fully ensure the burden of processing enterprises,” the ministry said in a statement.
“There is no possibility of a rapid increase in prices also because buckwheat is our domestic product, which we practically do not export,” adds Maxim Chirkov, an associate professor at the Department of Political Economy at the Faculty of Economics of the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia. – We take it out in small quantities. These are mainly Georgia, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and Moldova.
If we study the Rosstat data, it is obvious that while buckwheat prices are stable. The price of buckwheat is 43% lower than a year ago. In June, it cost 2 rubles cheaper than in May, almost 89 rubles per kilogram.
In turn, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has already responded to statements about the increase in the price of buckwheat.
“Such statements can be perceived as an incentive to raise prices by market participants, as well as provoke hasty consumer demand,” says the FAS. And they warn that if someone unreasonably raises prices, “antitrust response measures” will be applied. This can be a warning and a fine of millions of rubles.
AND IN THE MEANTIME
Rice Panic in the West
The United States and Europe have their own reason for the “grain worry”: rice has begun to rise in price, and people are sweeping it off the shelves.
“Rice prices are rising in the world because of the ban on its export from India,” says Arkady Zlochevsky, president of the Russian Grain Union. “In this way, India seeks to reduce the risk of inflation in its market. But! The ban does not apply to basmati rice, which is imported by Russia. Therefore, the increase in rice prices should not affect us at all. In addition, we expect a large rice harvest this year, up to 1.1 million tonnes. This is more than enough to cover our needs.
LISTEN ALSO
What will increase in price in Russia in the near future due to the depreciation of the ruble (more)
