November 22 2006, 10:37

Prices for vegetables and fruits can rapidly increase on the eve of New Year holidays in Russia

According to information of Russian Federal Service of Veterinarian and Phytosanitary Control, late December Netherlands will have to terminate the supplies of all types of plant products to Russia "because of the impossibility to provide the phytosanitary safety of the exported commodities". The source reports that a working meeting of the representatives of the mentioned service and the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality of Netherlands has been held today in Moscow. During this meeting Dutch party had to admit that it "can not guarantee the safety of plant products supplied by Netherlands to Russia".

Also, Dutch representatives informed about waived certification of the plant products from the third countries wheeled through the country. According to information of the Federal Service, by mid November 2006 163 quarantine objects have been detected among the produce imported from Netherlands (to compare with 43 objects detected by the same period of time past year).

The analysts of the Agricultural Marketing Project say that Netherlands is the largest supplier of a broad assortment of fresh produce on the territory of Russian Federation. And, a significant part of the produce supplied by Netherlands is grown in third countries. Some time ago Russia imposed a ban on Dutch produce supplies on its market, but later it raised the ban. The country undertook similar steps regarding the supplies of Turkish fruits and vegetables, but Turkish supplies succeeded to raise the ban. The supplies of fresh produce commodities of Polish, Georgian and Moldovian origin have been banned till the present moment.

Andriy Yarmak, the Deputy Director of the Agricultural Marketing Project thinks if Russia bans the import of Dutch fruits and vegetables, on the eve of the New Year holidays this action can result in a dramatic price jump for the mentioned commodities. It will be difficult to quickly find the alternative to Dutch produce supplies in conditions of the active bans of Polish, Georgian and Moldovian supplies. The expert notes that Georgian fresh herbs and tangerines, Polish apples and other "banned" products are actively sold in Russia despite of embargo. However, Russian consumers have to pay themselves for the service of the additional intermediaries who re-export the mentioned products.

You can get more information about the perspectives of the further development of the produce trade in the Eastern Europe from the presentations made by the representatives of Poland, Macedonia, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine and other countries on the conference "Fruits and Vegetables of Ukraine 2006. Open Market". The event starts on December 5th 2006 in Kyiv. We remind that only three days are left till the termination of the registration of the conference participants!