Ministry of Agriculture: confectioners reduced the production of sweets

According to Kommersant, referring to the Ministry of Agriculture, sweets have become the only category of food products in which a drop in output has been noted.

Milk, cheese, sugar during this period, on the contrary, increased in production - within 5%, butter, flour and pasta - by 11-16%, buckwheat - more than 36% . The reason for this trend was the reduction in exports of these products from the country. The indicator decreased by 40,000 tons, which is comparable to a decrease in output by 50,000 tons. According to the results of the first half of last year, the export of confectionery increased by 16.5% - up to 329,600 tons. The American Mars and the Swiss Nestle refused to export products to Russia.

Retail chains began to notice problems with confectionery. For example, the Verny retailer announced a slight reduction in the range - Nestle removed the Nesquik and KitKat brands from the shelves. At the same time, manufacturers have repeatedly increased the cost of their products since the end of February, referring to the rise in price of ingredients. Thus, prices for Milka, Alpen Gold, Barney grew three times in the range of 29-49% .

Experts believe that the decline in production will continue, although regulators promise to open new export markets for enterprises. However, it will be difficult to replace exports, since the replacement of international brands will require significant marketing costs.