Funeral Goods Manufacturers Raise Prices

Over the past month, the cost of coffins in Russia has grown by a third, wooden crosses - by 20%, metal fences for graves - 2.5 times.

According to Kommersant, one of the main reasons for the rise in prices was the continuing rise in the cost of metal and a twofold increase in prices for wood, provoked by the ban on the export of unprocessed timber.

Those Russians who are not ready to pay more for ritual accessories made of traditional materials will have to switch to cheaper counterparts made of cardboard or laminated chipboard.

Coffins have risen in price especially strongly. Depending on the models, the monthly growth was 30-60%. If in July “basic” coffins could be purchased for 7 thousand rubles, then since August the minimum price has increased to 9.2 thousand rubles. The prices for the goods of the more expensive segment rose from 15 to 20-25 thousand rubles.

Experts point out that such a serious rise in prices, many times faster than inflation, occurs for the first time in ten years.

Expecting a ban on the export of unprocessed timber, manufacturers are intensively driving their products abroad. As a result, a deficit is created in the domestic market, pulling prices up to export prices.

In early August, it became known that against the background of a significant increase in the death rate of the population in Russia, funeral agencies reported a sharp decrease in citizens' spending on organizing the funeral of relatives.

Mortality in the country, according to Rosstat, in the first half of this year increased by 16% (from 946.6 thousand to 1.1 million people), and the revenue of funeral agencies increased by only 9%, to 36.9 billion rubles. Citizens are trying to save money on additional and memorial services, especially in the regions. Experts note that Rosstat data may not necessarily be relevant due to the high share of “gray” services in the ritual market. Experts estimate the level of uncontrolled cash settlements in this area at 70-90%. Taking into account all expenses, the real revenue of funeral homes could be four times higher than the official statistics. According to experts, in fact, the funerals could earn not 36.9, but 140 billion rubles in the first half of the year. There is a large corruption component in this amount: agents of funeral homes buy “death addresses” from hospital and emergency services workers, and then “remove” these costs from the relatives of the deceased.

In 2020, Russians spent 34.07 billion rubles on funerals. Revenue decreased by 1%. Market participants indicate that the costs of burial have decreased for families: if before the pandemic people spent about 50 thousand rubles on funerals, now - no more than 30 thousand. More often than not, people postpone the installation of monuments and fences "for later".

This is caused by a general drop in the income of the population: people can no longer afford to organize a "funeral of the highest quality" for their loved ones and are forced to save on everything. Many are increasingly opting for cremation, which is 40% cheaper than burial in the ground. In St. Petersburg, the share of cremations increased from 65 to 70%. But in the country as a whole, where there are very few crematoria, the share of cremations does not exceed 10%.

In an interview with Sputnik radio, President of the Union of Funeral Organizations and Crematoria of Russia Pavel Kodysh explained that there is no purposeful savings on funeral services, people just started to save on everything.

“Citizens save on everything. They save on coffins and delivery, so there are more cremations. It is much cheaper. Also, burying the urn is cheaper. This is a general trend, it is everywhere now. If earlier people went to restaurants and made purchases, now this is not the case either”, - said Pavel Kodysh.

In an interview with Radio Sputnik, the executive director of the Union of Funeral Organizations and Crematoria Yelena Andreyeva expressed a different opinion about the dynamics of prices in the ritual industry. According to her, the rise in price is indeed observed, but not in all regions of Russia.

“There were disruptions in the supply of goods due to the pandemic, so nothing is getting cheaper in our country. This is not only in the ritual industry, there is a certain general trend. But I know for sure that prices for ritual services in certain regions are not growing. that everything has risen in price by 30% or more everywhere. This is an incorrect statement. For example, it is impossible to say that fences have increased in price by 2.5 times, I do not observe such a situation", - said Yelena Andreyeva.