Deputies from A Just Russia submitted to the State Duma a bill to limit prices for essential goods in the event of a sharp rise in price. Business representatives, of course, are against. They believe that the market will regulate everything.
RIA Novosti understood what was happening in the stores.
Last week, the Association of Retail Companies (ACORT) said that suppliers of large chains increased selling prices by five to fifteen percent, and some even by 50 percent. And they emphasized: everything possible is being done to «minimize the trade margin and keep the acceptable cost of goods.»
Growth limits
Shortly before that, representatives of the Perekrestok, Pyaterochka, Karusel and Magnit retail chains announced that they would reset the trade margin on some categories of socially significant goods for at least a month.
«The initiative is aimed at supporting socially vulnerable groups of buyers during a difficult epidemiological situation in the country. Each retail network will determine the list of essential foodstuffs in the» first price «segment, which will be offered to customers without a trade margin — at the price of their purchase from producers,» retailers promised.
The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) requested all information on price increases from ACORT and promised to conduct an investigation in each case.
But, apparently, this did not make much impression on the deputies. A few days later, A Just Russia submitted a bill to the State Duma, according to which the government should set price caps for essential goods in case of a sharp rise in price.
Note that the Cabinet has long had such a right. However, the current procedure provides for restrictions if prices rise continuously for 30 days and a rise in price reaches 30 percent. That is, this measure can be called operational only with a big stretch.
The market will figure it out
As expected, business did not like the idea of deputies. The Consumers Union said it would “hit everyone right away,” and urged higher authorities, instead of price controls, to help those who lost their income due to the pandemic.
«The price limit will not be able to support the needy citizens, or to preserve businesses that are compelled to be isolated from their consumers. The result of such measures, as Russian and world experience shows, are shortages and the emergence of a shadow market,» the statement signed by the leaders of industry associations said. The inevitable occurrence of a shortage of goods in the event of such restrictions was also warned at ACORT.
Executive Director of the National Fruit and Vegetable Union Mikhail Glushkov told RIA Novosti that he also does not support state regulation of prices. And in general, in his opinion, many products, on the contrary, became much cheaper.
“Today we wholesale tomatoes and cucumbers half as much as last April. Demand has fallen, everyone is sitting at home, they don’t eat anything but buckwheat. Therefore, it makes no sense to raise prices: increase — do not increase, no one buys,” — noted Glushkov.
At the same time, he warned that some of the products could still rise in price, but this would only affect open-field vegetables — the so-called borsch set: potatoes, cabbage, carrots and beets. And this is not surprising: these vegetables are harvested only once a year, and when they end in warehouses, they are imported from abroad. Naturally, after the fall of the ruble, imports will rise significantly.
But due to the general drop in demand, stocks in warehouses are declining more slowly than in previous years. Therefore, the need for the import of vegetables and fruits is increasing gradually, without sharp jumps.
At the same time, a shortage of products due to a pandemic should not be expected. In particular, in early April, the Ministry of Agriculture kept the forecast for grain yield at 125.3 million tons, which is almost four million more than last year, the second most productive in post-Soviet history.
The only thing that threatens is the bankruptcy of farmers, so they count on state support. Earlier this month, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Fruit and Vegetable Union appealed to the Ministry of Economic Development for this.
Now the government is deciding which greenhouse complexes can apply for state assistance. According to Mikhail Glushkov, at first it was assumed that for this the revenue should exceed two billion rubles, then it was raised to six. It is still unclear what they will finally stop at, but the expert considers the level of 2-2.5 billion to be quite sufficient.
What about the prices
RIA Novosti studied Rosstat data for several years on essential products (their complete list is approved by the government and published here).
Potatoes, carrots, cabbage and onions are usually the most expensive in spring. So, in April 2018, carrots and cabbage were in the lead — plus 13 percent. Onions added 2.5 percent and cost 21 percent less than a year earlier. It was about the same in 2019.
Prices for all other products from the list in April 2018 increased within a half percent. Only apples rose by 4.3 percent and sugar — by 3.3 percent. In April 2019, 5.5 percent added millet, etc. — within the same one and a half percent.
In March of this year, prices for flour and rice increased — by 4.5 and 5.5 percent. Buckwheat is in the lead due to excessive demand — 40 percent. At the same time, cabbage fell almost twice, potatoes, onions and carrots — by ten to sixteen percent.
