Russian Agriculture News

As I posted in another thread a while ago, there was deliberate sabotage of food production and delivery during the late 1980s and
into the 1990s. That included intercepting people trying to sell food (e.g. beef) in major cities by anonymous goons setting up
"check points" and threatening the sellers transporting the food with death. It also included horrible conditions for animals
such as poultry which cut back yields. Basically there was a coup to regime change the USSR. The clowns who perpetrated
this coup deliberately created shortages to lubricate public discontent with the system.

Yes "conspiracies" do happen in the real world. That is how gangs and elites operate.

kvs wrote:As I posted in another thread a while ago, there was deliberate sabotage of food production and delivery during the late 1980s and
into the 1990s.   That included intercepting people trying to sell food (e.g. beef) in major cities by anonymous goons setting up
"check points" and threatening the sellers transporting the food with death.   It also included horrible conditions for animals
such as poultry which cut back yields.   Basically there was a coup to regime change the USSR.   The clowns who perpetrated
this coup deliberately created shortages to lubricate public discontent with the system.  

Yes "conspiracies" do happen in the real world.   That is how gangs and elites operate.

Yes, the privatizers

And now they've set themselves up as the new elite and brought 'stability'.

Like how the Mafia brings stability and protection to a neighborhood, basically.

kvs wrote:As I posted in another thread a while ago, there was deliberate sabotage of food production and delivery during the late 1980s and
into the 1990s.   That included intercepting people trying to sell food (e.g. beef) in major cities by anonymous goons setting up
"check points" and threatening the sellers transporting the food with death.   It also included horrible conditions for animals
such as poultry which cut back yields.   Basically there was a coup to regime change the USSR.   The clowns who perpetrated
this coup deliberately created shortages to lubricate public discontent with the system.  

Yes "conspiracies" do happen in the real world.   That is how gangs and elites operate.

It is fascinating how corrupted the Soviet government became post 1985 with Gorbachev himself being the prime example. I believe this large scale corruption began in the 1970s with the delivery of natural gas to Western Europe and the subsequent setting up of multiple offshore bank relationships. In a nutshell, the USSR was brought down not be nuclear warheads, but by Swiss bank accounts.

PhSt wrote:

Basically there was a coup to regime change the USSR. The clowns who perpetrated
this coup deliberately created shortages to lubricate public discontent with the system.

So, why didn't the Soviet counter-intelligence apparatus reacted? Unless the conspiracy is within the top leadership, the government should have at least been informed of the ongoing coup. I put the blame of all this mess on Gorbachev's treasonous policies.

I can ask the same question about Venezuela. Why hasn't the police stopped all the US sponsored crime designed to alienate the
public from the government. You make it sound like counteracting such dirty tricks is easy. There is a good saying in Russian:
"lomat ne stroyet" (to destroy is not to build).

Also, the coup was originating from inside the apparatus from the very top. Gorbie was a symptom of the move by the communist
party elite to get a capitalist makeover. The Soviet system was a real limiter on the ambitions and ability of maggots to amass
wealth and power. So they destroyed it.

And it was not Reagan and his military budgets and SDI theater that "bankrupted" the USSR.

PapaDragon wrote:

kvs wrote:.... That included intercepting people trying to sell food (e.g. beef) in major cities by anonymous goons setting up
"check points" and threatening the sellers transporting the food with death.   It also included horrible conditions for animals
such as poultry which cut back yields.  ...

If this is true than it's just another proof that USSR was nothing more than a banana republic

You can trust me that in post-Soviet Russia, things got a whole lot worse

This topic was covered before.   There was a TV documentary made about the deliberate food shortages.   The link to the video
I posted is now defunct.

https://en.topwar.ru/120478-kak-gorbachev-sozdal-iskusstvennyy-deficit-edy.html

OK, I found it another link:

https://ok.ru/video/1835293020624

It is video from a TV program called 600 seconds.  It covers the period from 1989 to 1991 with a focus on Leningrad (Sankt Petersburg).  
The video starts showing expensive food dumped in a forest right outside the city.  

The particular incident I mentioned was something I heard from my relatives who lived through this period.

It is appalling how the average MSM consumer sap talks about free markets without never understanding what that means.
People call every oligopoly (e.g. car manufacturing) a "free market". Only when you have an actual monopoly do they start
to worry about competition but even then, they believe that a private monopoly is "more efficient" than a government monopoly.

What Garry describes is universal. In Ontario we had the neocon zealot Mike Harris privatize Hydro the provincial energy
monopoly with a phony breakup into three parts (generation, transmission and some other part). So he created three private
monopolies (even if we have some alt energy feed ins now). The first thing these private outfits started to do was to worry
about shareholders and dividends. So all of the sudden money that was spent on infrastructure had another priority. This
meant that the electricity rates had to go up. That's right, the myth about better prices after privatization is a stupid myth.

Also, with Ontario Hydro, we had the grotesque situation where the crooked politicians isolated the 30 billion Canadian dollar
debt (circa 1990 in dollars of the time) and put its maintenance as an additional fee on our electricity bills. Of course after
privatization we are still paying to retire the debt. So the investors who reaped this privatization windfall did not even have
to deal with the debt as would be normal for actual private sector corporate acquisitions. The Ontario Hydro debt was mostly
due to nuclear power plant construction. One plant cost Ontario 14 billion Canadian dollars (in 1980s dollars). So the corruption
was blooming already.

I do not know the situation in the late 1980s, but I do know from firsthand experience that by 1994 farmers in the Moscow Region had to pay a "tariff" to Caucasian gangs to sell produce in Moscow. You could find produce from Dagestan or Tajikistan but little from 20 miles outside Moscow. This was the same period when Caucasian gangs would operate "tochkas" in Moscow - groups of young Russian, Ukrainian, or Belarussian girls prostituted for from $20 to $100 dollars. (They would be segregated by appearance and priced accordingly). This happened in the center of Moscow on Tverskaya Street with a bus load of cops providing additional protection to the pimps. Sunday was allegedly "freebie" day for the cops. That was the situation Putin walked into.

Boris Berezovsky used the North Caucasian mafias as his personal enforcers to engage in extortion and other racketeering at the
national economy level. So the same as the market vendor crime but writ large. But he was also involved in local Moscow
street gang activity as well. Khodorkovsky did not use North Caucasians directly but filled up cemeteries as well.

People should read the book "Godfather of the Kremlin" by Paul Khlebnikov. Khlebinkov was murdered likely on Berezovsky's orders.
Naturally the western fake stream media blamed Putin.

miketheterrible wrote:

calripson wrote:I do not know the situation in the late 1980s, but I do know from firsthand experience that by 1994 farmers in the Moscow Region had to pay a "tariff" to Caucasian gangs to sell produce in Moscow. You could find produce from Dagestan or Tajikistan but little from 20 miles outside Moscow. This was the same period when Caucasian gangs would operate "tochkas" in Moscow - groups of young Russian, Ukrainian, or Belarussian girls prostituted for from $20 to $100 dollars. (They would be segregated by appearance and priced accordingly). This happened in the center of Moscow on Tverskaya Street with a bus load of cops providing additional protection to the pimps. Sunday was allegedly "freebie" day for the cops. That was the situation Putin walked into.

Gotta love what the Commies ended up putting Russia through.  Thank God Putin came into power.

Recall that this gangster's paradise was the "golden years" according to Navalny and his NATzO sponsors. We had
"palpable humanitarian" Yeltsin in charge according to the LA Times. But then came "KGB thug" Putin who spoiled
it all with his tyranny. Putin also was responsible for every journalist killing during the 1990s, retroactively.

Sales of Russian agricultural machinery abroad break records
Today

For the third year in a row, Russian manufacturers of agricultural machinery enjoy life, as sales of their products abroad are breaking records. So in 2020, deliveries abroad increased by 30% (a year earlier, shipments abroad increased by only 9%), and in money terms it is almost 16 billion rubles. Thanks to the weak ruble, the demand for farmers' products on the world market, and government support (discounts on equipment under the 1432 program). Indeed, against this background, production itself is actually growing. And yet, the absolute record was recorded in 2018, when there was an increase of 40%, but there was also a low base for starting.

And who loves Russia so much. As it turned out, at the end of 2020, exports to Germany in monetary terms increased 4.6 times, to Austria - 4.5 times, the Czech Republic - 2.9 times, Bulgaria - 2.1 times, to France - by 84%, the Netherlands - 73%, Hungary - 44% ,. The CIS countries also did not disappoint, for example, sales to Kyrgyzstan increased by 51%, and Kazakhstan by 29%.

The largest increase in units was recorded in the segments of all-wheel drive agricultural tractors, sales of which increased by 43% to 524 units, harrows (by 41%, to 810 units), forage harvesters (by 35%, to 112 units), plows ( by 34%, up to 419 units), cultivators (by 30%, up to 153 units) and combine harvesters (by 23%, up to 1.1 thousand units).

Let me remind you that the production of agricultural tractors in Russia increased by 29%, to 4.7 thousand units, grain harvesters - by 24%, to 5.5 thousand units, harrows - by 22%, to 5.3 thousand units, seeders - by 19 %, up to 5.7 thousand units, self-propelled mowers - by 18%, up to 352 units, forage harvesters - by 15%, up to 649 units, plows - by 14%, up to 3 thousand units, sprayers - by 10%, up to 1 , 2 thousand pieces. In general, the output of domestic agricultural machinery in 2020 increased by 29.6%, to 149 billion rubles, and its share in the domestic market increased by 4 percentage points, to 58%. And everything would be fine, only metallurgists are putting a spoke in their wheels, prices for their products are getting higher and higher, so this growth trend may subside.

https://zen.yandex.ru/media/zavodfoto/prodaji-rossiiskoi-selhoztehniki-za-granicu-biut-rekordy-601931472d3708189ca686e8

kvs wrote:Boris Berezovsky used the North Caucasian mafias as his personal enforcers to engage in extortion and other racketeering at the
national economy level.   So the same as the market vendor crime but writ large.   But he was also involved in local Moscow
street gang activity as well.   Khodorkovsky did not use North Caucasians directly but filled up cemeteries as well.

People should read the book "Godfather of the Kremlin" by Paul Khlebnikov.  Khlebinkov was murdered likely on Berezovsky's orders.
Naturally the western fake stream media blamed Putin.    

Kolomosiky supposedly does the same thing in Ukraine today only he uses neo-fascist gangs. The irony of a Jewish oligarch hiring Nazis doesn't faze anyone including Victoria Nuland. As far as Russia in the 1990s, Moscow Mayor Luzhkov was notorious for his alleged connections to Chechnyan crime groups. In 1996, American businessman Paul Tatum was murdered in broad daylight outside Kievskaya Metro by AK-74 wielding assassins. He had been involved in a business dispute over the Radisson Slavyanskaya Hotel and had barricaded himself on the top floor. He decided to take a stroll that November day with his bodyguards and bullet proof vest - neither of which saved him. I had passed through that area only hours earlier and I can tell you it was normally packed with people and with cops. Oddly, no police around at the time of the killing. The City of Moscow and Chechnyan investors took control of the hotel. What is noteworthy about this is Luzhkov's wife Yelena Butarina is still the richest woman in Russia with an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion. That tells you much about the character of the Russian oligarch class and who they would put into power post-Putin.

OT, but anyway. The plan with all these oligarchs is that they do their damage and then are rolled over or just sell out to
the real operators abroad. It is the banana republic management model. The government run by the local oligarchs serves
foreign masters.

It also shows that capitalism is not intrinsically superior. In fact, it tends to the kleptocrat regime before any sane order.
What a country needs is sane, independent of local and foreign oligarch control government. Russia was lucky at the
very least to have gotten such an arrangement with Putin. Americans are proud of Teddy Roosevelt and his reigning in
of the trusts but swallow the BS that Putin is a tyrant. Those same Americans think that the kleptocrat toilet called
Ukraine (aka Banderastan) is a normal country. I guess Americans pine for the Gilded Age period.

Russia now exports more food than it imports. See the graph at 1:35 in the video which compares exports and imports
from 1995 to 2020. The Green part reflects the steady growth oversee by Putin. The increase in imports until 2013
reflects the growing standard of living. For example meat consumption (which is more expensive than cereals) increased
after 2000. But a lot of that growth was due to high value added foods like cheeses from Italy, expensive fruits and
expensive alcohol (wine, liquor).

Russia exported about $30 billion in food in 2020 compared to $16 billion in weapons.

But foreign food speculators and Covid-19 have resulted in a rapid increase of certain food commodities (e.g. cereals)
that has pushed up prices in Russia. This forced the government to intervene by imposing export tariffs. A fallout
of such intervention is that the food growers are getting resentful about "big bad government theft", you know because
they have a God given right to chase the highest speculator driven dollar. So the current effort is to come up with
a set mechanism where the tariffs are fed back to the producers if they invest them in Russian equipment and other
investment in production.

kvs wrote:

Russia now exports more food than it imports.   See the graph at 1:35 in the video which compares exports and imports
from 1995 to 2020.   The Green part reflects the steady growth oversee by Putin.   The increase in imports until 2013
reflects the growing standard of living.   For example meat consumption (which is more expensive than cereals) increased
after 2000.   But a lot of that growth was due to high value added foods like cheeses from Italy, expensive fruits and
expensive alcohol (wine, liquor).

Russia exported about $30 billion in food in 2020 compared to $16 billion in weapons.  

But foreign food speculators and Covid-19 have resulted in a rapid increase of certain food commodities (e.g. cereals)
that has pushed up prices in Russia.   This forced the government to intervene by imposing export tariffs.   A fallout
of such intervention is that the food growers are getting resentful about "big bad government theft", you know because
they have a God given right to chase the highest speculator driven dollar.   So the current effort is to come up with
a set mechanism where the tariffs are fed back to the producers if they invest them in Russian equipment and other
investment in production.

You forgot to mention something else. In addition to nearly $ 30 billion worth of food, Russia exported another $15 billion worth of agricultural machinery. So, we can say that the total export of the agro-industrial complex of Russia is $45 billion.

In general, non-primary non-energy exports from Russia in 2020 exceeded $ 160 billion, which is about half of the total export volume.
By the way, Russia also ranks first in the world in terms of wheat exports for the fifth year in a row.

Russia began to successfully feed China
March 4, 2021

The world continues to import Russian food products. For the first time, our country sold abroad food practically as much as it imported. China, which until recently perceived Russia only as a supplier of raw materials, finally tasted products from Russia. What helped Russian food abroad and is there potential for growth in its exports in the future?

The export of agricultural products since the beginning of the year has grown by more than a third - by 36%. Russia has already sold $ 4.1 billion worth of goods. These are the data of the Federal Center for the Development of Export of Agricultural Products (FGBU "Agroexport") under the Ministry of Agriculture. Last year, it grew by almost 20% to about $ 30 billion.

Grain exports from Russia in January-February more than doubled, to $ 1.8 billion. Such a high rate of supply is explained by the fact that exporters were trying to manage to sell more wheat before the introduction of export duties on February 15. Last year, Russia reached its second-ever harvest level of 133 million tonnes of grain. As a result, Russia promises to become the world leader in wheat exports this agricultural year.

The supply of fat and oil products is also growing: since the beginning of the year, they have increased by 6.3%, to $ 687 million. Sunflower and other oils are setting price records again. The demand for these products is fueled by crop problems in South America and higher oil prices, as well as concerns about the possible introduction of export duties on oil from Russia.

Exports of food and processing industry products decreased by 5.7%, to 346 million dollars, meat and dairy products - increased by 33.7%, to 135 million. $ 448 million. This is due to the fact that China has closed the supply of Russian products, allegedly due to the found coronavirus. “As a result, many enterprises in Russia were put on the brink of survival - not everyone succeeded in redirecting product flows to other countries. At the same time, China consumes more than 60% of fish and various commodity items of this direction, which are produced in Russia, "- notes the head of the analytical department of AMarkets Artem Deev.

Overall, the past year has revealed several important trends. At first,

for the first time in history, Russia exported as much food as it imported in monetary terms.

Thus, the export of food products increased by 18%, to $ 29.1 billion, while imports amounted to $ 29.4 billion. That is, the difference was only $ 0.4 billion. This is a historically low value, said Daria Snitko, head of the Center for Economic Forecasting (CEP) at Gazprombank.

If we take the data of the Federal Center for the Development of Export of Agroindustrial Complex of the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia, then the export of food and agricultural raw materials from Russia at the end of 2020 amounted to $ 30.6 billion, that is, even exceeded imports.

For comparison: until 2014, food imports exceeded Russian exports by an average of $ 25 billion. But in recent years, food imports have been declining all the time, while exports have grown, which has led to such a historical result. Russia can now feed not only itself, but other countries as well.

The second important trend is the decline in the share of the US dollar in Russian exports, especially in trade with China and India. According to the World Bank, in the first half of 2020 it fell to 60.2%, compared to 62% in the first half of 2019. The share of the dollar in payments for imports also decreased - from 35.4% to 35.1%. The decline in the level of de-dollarization of the Russian economy continues.

The third important point: despite the drop in the export of raw materials due to the coronavirus, primarily due to the collapse in prices, the export of non-resource non-energy exports from Russia is growing. In 2020, it amounted to $ 161.3 billion against $ 155.1 billion in 2019, the Russian Export Center calculated. This is a new absolute record. And so Russia is setting a record for the third year in a row for this indicator.

Finally, Russian exports clearly show Russia's pivot towards Asia. The main trade partner of our country is China, which every year opens new products from Russia. At this rate, Russia is quite capable of achieving its goals - to increase trade with China to $ 200 billion by 2024, the Russian Export Center is confident.

In 2020, trade with China amounted to $ 104 billion. At the same time, it decreased by 6.7% compared to 2019, which is explained by a sharp drop in oil and gas prices. Raw materials still account for the lion's share of Russian exports to China (60%). However, in recent years, our country has been actively increasing the supply of food products: vegetable oil, flour, confectionery, chocolate, juices, alcoholic beverages, etc.

According to REC, the share of non-resource non-energy exports to China has been growing for three years in a row: from 21.8% in 2018 to 25.3% in 2019 and up to 33.3% last year. In 2020, non-resource exports grew by almost 13% and amounted to $ 16.4 billion. Russia's total exports to China amounted to $ 49 billion.
According to the Russian Export Center, the Chinese have significantly increased the purchase of sunflower oil, rapeseed, poultry meat and by-products, soybean oil, as well as copper, polyethylene, semi-finished products of unalloyed steel, aluminum and its alloys, copper wire, cast iron. "It is worth noting the emergence of new Russian goods in the volume of NOE to China, such as billets, coils and semi-finished products of various types of ferrous and non-ferrous metals, as well as copper wire, connected with the systematic restrictions imposed by the PRC government on the import of ferrous and non-ferrous scrap," in REC.

Also last year, Russia began delivering frozen beef, soybean sprat and oil cake to China. This became possible thanks to the agreements of the Rosselkhoznadzor with the Chinese.

“The fact that China is increasing purchases of Russian products is explained by the pricing environment - against the background of high world prices, products from Russia are optimal in quality and cost,” Deev said.

Consistent promotion of the image of Russian farmers, including at the level of the heads of government of the two countries, also helps. Many remember how Vladimir Putin presented the leader of China with his favorite ice cream from Russia, Lakomka.

"Improving the image of Russian products abroad as environmentally friendly will help increase their exports in the long term,"

- says the associate professor of the Department of International Business and Customs of the PRUE. Plekhanova Lada Progunova. “In Russia, the use of genetically modified technologies is legally limited, so the Chinese consumer clearly knows that they have found environmentally friendly and safe products,” said REC Director General Veronika Nikishina.

The common border with China and developing logistics also help. According to Nikishina, further construction of infrastructure in the Russian Far East will increase trade between China and Russia.

In general, the pandemic did not prevent the growth of agricultural exports from Russia, but, on the contrary, even helped. “Due to massive quarantines around the world, the agricultural season was not fully completed. The migrants were unable to arrive in time for the harvest, so some of it was lost. There are also climatic problems - floods, droughts, loss of agricultural land - this is a long-term trend that affects food prices (they are rising) and production volumes (they are decreasing). Accordingly, the demand for Russian grain, meat, milk, etc. is growing, ”explains Deev.

In addition, many countries feared a shortage of food due to the pandemic and provoked an exuberant demand for a number of goods, in particular, for cereals, flour, sunflower oil. This caused prices to rise. And the rise in world food prices is helping Russian exporters to earn more. Finally, the devaluation of the ruble played into their hands, making Russian products more attractive in terms of price and quality.

The first months of this year show the potential for growth in agricultural exports from Russia this year, including due to an increase in supplies to China. “The potential for growth in sales to China this year has all agricultural products - from cereals to groceries. In addition, there is a high demand in the PRC for Russian flax, legumes, soybeans, fish products, ”says Deev.

Negotiations are underway with China to lift restrictions on trade in peas, beans, millet, millet, rye flour, semolina. This list also includes animal feed and medicinal raw materials.

In the future, pork should also take a prominent place in the Chinese market. We can talk about the supply of 300-350 thousand tons of pork to China after the restrictions are lifted, according to REC.

A lower grain harvest compared to last year, as well as restrictions on the export of grain and oilseeds, may slightly hinder the growth of exports of agricultural products in 2021. On the other hand, a significant increase in government support will stimulate export growth. If in 2020, within the framework of the state program, 29.7 billion rubles were allocated to support the export of agricultural products (almost everything was used), then in 2021 it is planned to spend 47.3 billion rubles.

Text: Olga Samofalova

https://m.vz.ru/economy/2021/3/4/1087781.html

Russia becomes net exporter of food for first time in post-Soviet history
10 Mar, 2021

Russia exported 79 million tons of food products last year, worth $30.7 billion, the AgroExport center under the country’s Ministry of Agriculture said in its latest report.

According to the agency, Russian food exports saw a 20-percent surge compared to the previous year, beating the record set in 2018, when the country exported 78.5 million tons of produce worth $25.8 billion.

The nation also exported more grain, meat, fish, vegetables, dairy and other products than it imported, becoming a net seller of agricultural produce for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Grains traditionally made up more than half of Russia’s agricultural export in terms of weight, accounting for about 33 percent of foreign food sales. In 2020, the country recorded its second-strongest grain harvest in history. Turkey became a major consumer of Russian grains, having bought nine million tons for $1.9 billion.

The biggest rise was seen in meat exports, which reportedly rose 49 percent over the year to a total value of nearly $900 million, boosted by strong and growing demand from China.
Beijing remained the top importer of Russian food produce, accounting for 13 percent of overall sales.

Turkey became the second-biggest buyer with 10 percent, while the share of Kazakhstan’s imports totaled seven percent. In total, Russia exported food products to 150 countries across the globe.

Russia’s agricultural sector has been booming since 2014, when the country banned some food imports from the European Union in response to sanctions over the Crimean reunification, and had to develop domestic alternatives to European dairy products, fruits, vegetables, cheeses and meat.

Under the strategy put forward by the country’s government, agricultural imports are set to increase by another 50 percent over the next three years. Russia’s Agriculture Ministry expects food exports to amount to at least to $26 billion in 2021.

However, recent measures undertaken by the Russian government may hold back the dramatic growth. The Kremlin has recently introduced an export limit and a tax hike on exports of grains in an effort to keep excess supplies at home to prevent domestic food prices from rising.

https://www.rt.com/business/517625-russia-food-net-exporter-record/