Analysts predict that Russia may greatly increase the volume of imports of potatoes from Egypt in the 2020/21 season. Reports came in this week about the arrival of the first bulk shipments of potatoes from Egypt to ports in the southern regions of Russia. This is in connection with continued growth in domestic prices and aggravating problems with the quality of Russian tubers in potato warehouses, Thus, the active import of Egyptian potatoes to Russia this year began about two weeks earlier than last season.
Potatoes from Egypt are currently offered in the southern ports of the country at 40-44 rubles/kg ($0.54-0.60/kg) while a year earlier prices for the first batches of this product did not exceed 32 rubles/kg ($0.40/kg). Local potatoes are becoming more expensive in Russia for the second week in a row. Over the year, potatoes in Russia have risen in price two and a half times and now Russian potato growers sell potatoes of the 2020 harvest from storage at 20-30 rubles/kg ($0.27-0.41/kg).
According to EastFruit analysts, the volume of potato imports to Russia amounted to only 310,000 tons in the 2019/20 season (June-May) while Russian potato growers were able to deliver 411,000 tons of their products abroad. Approximately 100,000-110,000 tons of official exports were supplied to the uncontrolled territories of Ukraine. Thus, after deducting these supplies, Russia exported approximately the same volume of potatoes as it imported in the previous season, about 300,000-310,000 tons. Previously, exports of potatoes from Russia never exceeded 100,000-110,000 tons.
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