Natalya Zubarevich: “Yes, the harvest is magnificent, yes, there is no hunger, but farmers have problems”

"There is a problem. Because our agrarians cannot sell.

A luxurious harvest, export restrictions were introduced by the Russian side last year.

In order not to increase the price of bread and flour, quotas and export duties were introduced.

This is our history. These are not some Western adversaries.

It was our government that really did not want prices to rise for a basic product - and bread and flour are basic products.

Farmers now, with such a duty, it is not profitable to export. The quotas ended in July, they were chosen, the agricultural year ended in July, and we will see how the authorities will now regulate this market in the agricultural year 2022-2023.

But while Russia, for example, in August, sold almost a quarter more than a year earlier.

And the harvest is amazing.

Farmers do not receive money.

This means that he will buy less equipment and fertilizers. This means that the first thing he will think with his agrarian head is how much I will sow next year so as not to end up in such a situation.

Therefore: yes, we provide for ourselves, yes - no hunger. But this is the market.

And if you, as a state authority, introduce restrictions, business reacts to them in one way or another.

We had fertilizer quotas by the Russian authorities, on the one hand.

And they also tried to regulate metallurgy by price, but not so roughly, but still.

There are two problems: this is that ours introduced certain restrictions, and the second problem is terrible! - this is the cost of freight and the ships that carry it all.

Insurance companies do not want to insure cargo from Russia. The cost of renting ships has risen sharply.

They do not want to enter the Black Sea, because these are risks, insurance companies do not insure. In the Baltic, many companies do not want to ship to and from Russia.

This is a combination of external force majeure and a very interesting regulatory domestic policy of the Russian Federation.

But there were no restrictions on fertilizers “on the forehead”, it was for agricultural products, but that’s how it all turned out.”

The entire interview with Natalia Zubarevich can be viewed here.