Domestic fruits in scarce supply

According to experts from Credinform, Russia’s accession to WTO largely worsens positions of domestic fruit producers, which are already not too stable. Import share of this type of products is dramatically growing today. For example, import volume of stone fruit crop has grown in 2010 by 7%, and in 2011 - by 17% in natural units already.

According to analytical survey of Credinform “Fresh fruits market in Russia”, market of citrus and subtropical cultures is the most depending on import. Almost 100% of the market is imported products. The leaders among citrus suppliers to Russia are Egypt, Marocco and Turkey. Moreover, the total volume of domestic manufacture of citruses in Russia amounted to approximately 1 100 centners in 2011; almost the same figures of harvest are forecasted for 2012.

What concerns other fruit-and-berry crop in the country, its share also continues to diminish. Today, more than a half of fruit and berry harvest is covered by pomaceous fruits (apples, pears, etc.), another 30% are berries, and only 20% are stone fruits (apricots, peaches, etc.). Currently, key Russian fruit producers are concentrated in the Southern Federal District and the Volga Federal District, which is stipulated by climatic conditions; however, they are not so numerous even there. Many domestic manufacturers try to establish their own production and to compete with imported products, which is quite difficult. This is related with objective complexity of business conduct in the sphere of agriculture, low profitability of such production, problems with sales, etc.

According to experts, it is rather difficult to forecast the situation on the fruit market in Russia in the nearest future, since a great variety of factors affects the market. However, it can be clearly stated that without investments to the development of agriculture, including fruit-and-berry farms, it would be almost impossible to strengthen positions of domestic producers. We need a qualitative modernization of farms as well as their expansion and incentives for agricultural production that would allow raising domestic manufacturers to a profitable level and thereby making the Russian fresh fruits market less import-dependent.