By Vestnik Kavkaza
Sanctions against Russia blow up the long-term maintenance of the oil market and carry risks for European refineries, said the head of "Rosneft" Igor Sechin yesterday. However, Europe still does not feel the effect of anti-Russian sanctions as much as Russia itself. The chairman of the board of the association "Rusprodsoyuz", Maxim Protasov, spoke about the problems that manufacturers and suppliers of food products faced after the ban on food imports from the EU, USA, Canada and Australia in response to the Western sanctions against Russia.
According to him, manufacturers and suppliers of food products have to solve three problems.
First. Do not allow a deficit, to avoid emptiness in the consumer basket. This is the most unpleasant thing that could happen in the country. However, according to Protasov, the consumer does not see the critical change of assortments that has affected the consumer basket.
Second. The task of preventing unjustified price increases, which is always determined by two factors - collusion or monopolization of one or another segment and the panic factor, which is also natural in the market economy. "Of course prices have changed," Protasov recognizes. "Many agricultural cultures became dependent on the exchange rate, because in addition to the sanctions during the six months we have seen another great change in our economic situation - the depreciation of the national currency. Factors of slow increase in retail chains with regard to other sales channels affects the economic providers, actively working with retailers. It was necessary to maintain the attractiveness of a channel for retailers and suppliers to smooth economic damage to suppliers from slow price increases, and the cost, it will increase anyway." As a result, we managed to ensure a smooth change in the prices on the shelves.
Third. The common task of both manufacturers and retailers is to increase the share of domestic products on the shelves of Russian chainstores. For retail - it is a question of independence, business security, because any political cataclysms and changes can be insured only one-way: if the goods are produced "behind the fence". "Manufacturing plants are not built in six months. All that we could count six months ago was the quick introduction of free production funds, their reloading due to increased orders from Russian trade as a result of sanctions.
Meanwhile, he says, "banning imports of canned fruits and vegetables from Moldova and Ukraine led to a 17-percent increase in vegetable processing by canneries. It happened almost at the beginning of vegetable harvest season, so the factories had time to readjust. In addition, this segment had no monopoly, so the level of import independence increased. However, import substitution does not occur promptly, any project takes from two to five years. "
