Russia may prohibit chocolate import

Russian agricultural producers are asked to expand the list of products that fall under the food embargo, due to chocolate and some other confectionery products, Kommersant writes with reference to the head of the Rosselkhoznadzor Sergey Dankvert.

According to him, proposals for limiting the supply of chocolate "make sense to support domestic manufacturers."

Russian officials have already warned the fact that Russia will maintain the effect of the grocery embargo in the event of extending sanctions by the European Union. Moreover, the list of prohibited products can be expanded. The ban on the import of chocolate can be one of such measures.

Dankvert said today on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, which can be limited by export and synthetic intestinal shells - this is a "high -tech production that must be developed at home"

Recall that Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on June 5 at the Food Safety Forum in Rostov-on-Don promised agrarians an increase in and so increased state financing and said that Russia has reached the desired level of food independence in four of eight basic products-grain, sugar, vegetable oil and potato. Cocoa-beans are not included in this list.

In the spring, Russian confectioners announced a possible suspension of chocolate production due to the fall of the ruble and restrictions on the import of raw materials. The fact is that the production of chocolate is more than 50% dependent on imported ingredients, and due to crop failure last summer, prices for one of the most commonly used ingredients - hazelnuts - increased by 79%.

Due to the devaluation of the ruble, the cost of cocoa products over a year increased by more than 50%, the Center for Research of the confectionery market cited an example. According to Rosstat, the production of chocolate in Russia only in March decreased by 21.3%, to 7.5 thousand tons.

Meanwhile, according to the analytical agency Euromonitor, 73% of the inhabitants of our country regularly use chocolate. According to RBC. Research of markets , the level of consumption of chocolate products in Russia reached 5 kg per person, which exceeds the average indicator for eastern Europe - 4 kg per capita.

Chocolate, like coffee, cereals, flour confectionery, including cakes and cookies, as well as all products from cocoa, did not fall into the list of products prohibited for import from the USA, Canada, EU, Norway and Australia to Russia, approved by the Government of the Russian Federation in August last year. However, according to the Center for Research of the Confectionery Market, chocolate prices for a year increased by more than 50%.

Since the beginning of this year, Russian confectionery enterprises have sharply reduced the import of cocoa bobs due to the rapid increase in prices for them. According to the FCS, over the four months of this year, the import of cocoa beans amounted to 8.7 thousand tons against 19.2 thousand for the same period of last year. The cost of imports decreased from $ 65.6 million last year to 28.5 million this year.

The main reason for the fall in import is a sharp increase in world prices for cocoa beans. Their rise in price is associated with an unexpectedly low harvest in Ghana, who is the second manufacturer of cocoa beans in the world after a cat-d'Ivoir.

According to various estimates, this season, the collection of cocoa beans can be 30% less than predicted. Ghana's state -owned company Cocobod evaluated the crop this year at 1 million tons, but, according to Ecobank, it can fall to 700 thousand tons, which is the fault of the fungal diseases of the plants and the lack of necessary fungicides.