All news
Essential goods are becoming more expensive in Russia: why the government is not imposing a price cap
In Russia, prices for essential goods are starting to rise. From October 8 to 14, prices for chicken eggs, butter, vermicelli, and cottage cheese increased. Producers are facing a shortage of milk, which is why market prices for dairy products continue to rise, and the Ministry of Agriculture has stated that the country does not plan to participate in regulating prices for butter. Which goods have become more expensive in the URA.RU material and why?
Rosstat reported an increase in prices for dairy products from October 8 to 14, 2024: butter (+1.4%), cottage cheese (+1.0%), pasteurized milk (+0.8%), sour cream (+0.9%), cheese (+0.7%). Prices also increased for pasta, canned meat, wheat and rye bread, chicken eggs and noodles, sunflower oil, rice, sausages, sausages, beef, pork and other products.
The prices of potatoes, bananas (+1.3%), cucumbers and onions (+0.2%) also changed. On the other hand, the prices of carrots (-1.9%), apples (-1.4%), cabbage (-1.0%), beets (-1.2%), lamb (-0.1%) and chicken (-0.2%) fell. .
The rise in butter prices in Russia is due to rising production costs, including rising prices for raw materials, packaging and logistics. Significant markups in retail chains, averaging over 70%, also increase costs. Pricing is affected by labor shortages, rising key rates and problems with servicing foreign equipment.
Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Rusprodsoyuz Association Dmitry Leonov noted that it is necessary to reduce price increases from stores in order to minimize them. He emphasized that producers are already partially transferring cost increases to selling prices and are trying to contain the growth by reducing profitability.
The rise in prices for butter in Russia was noted by Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Boris Chernyshov, who sent an appeal to the Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov. In the document, the deputies ask to consider the possibility of introducing a threshold retail price for dairy products.
Russian Agriculture Minister Oksana Lut said she had no plans to introduce government controls on butter prices. Instead, she said, milk production should be increased and fat content should be raised. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said it was taking steps to increase butter imports from friendly countries to saturate the domestic market and stabilize prices.
The chairman of the presidium of the Association of Retail Trade Companies, Igor Karavaev, told Izvestia that legislative restrictions on trade markups are an unnecessary and ineffective measure that violates the mechanism of market pricing. In his opinion, this could prevent retail chains from balancing price increases by displaying different goods, which would ultimately lead to an increase in the price of all goods.