The Ministry of Agriculture negotiates with retail chains to limit margins

The Ministry of Agriculture expects by the end of the week to agree with retail chains on the possibility of voluntary restrictions on margins on certain groups of socially significant goods. This work is carried out jointly with the Federal Antimonopoly Service, the ministry said after a meeting of the interdepartmental headquarters for the stabilization of food prices.

According to the Minister of Agriculture Dmitry Patrushev, now there is a downward trend in prices for pork, chicken meat, eggs and fish. At the same time, the situation with vegetables and potatoes requires special attention. In order to prevent a rise in the cost of sugar, almost all Russian producers have fixed selling prices for retail sales until July 31 at the level of 47 rubles per kg on the recommendation of the Federal Antimonopoly Service.

“In addition, in order to maintain stable prices for bread and bakery products in March, we plan to support enterprises in the amount of 2.5 thousand rubles. per ton of produced and sold products. 2.5 billion rubles will be allocated for these purposes,” the head of the Ministry of Agriculture added. In order to receive compensation, enterprises will have to commit themselves not to raise prices.

As a result of parliamentary hearings held earlier in the State Duma on state regulation of pricing in the food market, deputies were recommended to develop a bill that would limit marginal trade margins for socially significant essential food products. The government and relevant departments are recommended to work out the issue of transferring retail chains to long-term contracts with agricultural producers for the supply of vegetable products at a fixed price, as well as to develop a procedure that allows food producers to indicate the selling price on packaging.

In early February, it became known that the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Federal Antimonopoly Service wanted to convince retailers to limit margins on socially important goods by no more than 5%. The list of such products may include beets, carrots, potatoes, onions, kefir, butter, sugar, drinking milk , cottage cheese and short-term storage bakery products.

In mid-January, large retailers proposed to the Federal Antimonopoly Service to limit the markup on basic goods to no more than 10%. This is how retail chains reacted to the regulator's proposal to develop mechanisms for "responsible pricing" after inspections revealed an overestimation of margins, including for socially important goods. Later, regional retail chains joined the initiative. 

However, officials of the Ministry of Agriculture suggested that in practice the restrictions affected only goods under the chains' own brands, which account for about 20% of their sales, the margin on them is already minimal. As prices continue to rise, the ministry has asked retailers to limit markups on popular branded food.

Sugar producers fix the price of 47 rubles for retail 

According to the results of the first quarter, inflation in annual terms may reach 8.5%, follows from the report of the Central Bank on monetary policy. According to Rosstat, by February 11, inflation slowed to 8.75% from 8.8% on February 4. According to the forecast of the Central Bank, by the end of the year inflation will be 5-6%, although earlier the regulator expected 4-4.5%. “We understand that a 1 p.p. range for the inflation forecast is quite unusual for the Central Bank, but this is due to the fact that there is also uncertainty associated with the geopolitical situation, and uncertainties associated with the speed with which problems will be removed on supply side in the global economy,” explained Alexei Zabotkin, Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank, speaking at the State Duma on February 22.