Agricultural production in Russia has fallen by 20 percent over the last two years, the Corriere della Sera daily reported. He also emphasized that Vladimir Putin is “losing the battle for grain”, and the situation is reminiscent of the times of the collapse of the Soviet Union and is impoverishing the poorest Russians.
The Italian daily “Corriere della Sera” quoted on its website analysts Aleksander Koliandr and Aleksander Prokopienka, who reported on the independent Russian emigre portal Bell that the production of cereals and vegetables in Russia dropped last year to 125 million tons, while in 2023 it amounted to almost 145 million tons. This is even less than the 130 million tons that Putin talked about before the publication of the statistics.
Decline in agricultural production in Russia
In 2022, that is, in the first year of Russia's war with Ukraineagricultural production exceeded 157 million tons. Within two years, there was a decline of over 30 million tons, which is the same as the harvest of a large European country – this is another conclusion of the analysis.
In Russia, which is the third largest grain producer after China and Indiaa decline of 16% was recorded last year. and it is not – as we read in “Corriere della Sera” – the fault climate change.
“They do less than they could”
“Some of the deep causes of the agricultural recession are reminiscent of the problems Moscow experienced during the collapse of the Soviet Union: farmers have little economic incentive, do not understand why they have to try harder and therefore do less than they could,” the newspaper wrote.
She added that production is also hampered by obligations and increasing expert duties that the government in Moscow imposes on farmers in order to force them to sell their crops on the internal market.
Higher rates on products from Russia and Belarus
At the end of May 2024, European Union countries made the final decision to impose higher customs duties on cereals, oilseeds and derived products imported from Russia and Belarus. The regulation on this matter entered into force on July 1, 2024.
The aim of this action was to stop the import of cereals from these countries to the EU. Poland appealed for the EU to impose higher customs duties, The czech republic and the Baltic countries.
Main photo source: PAP/EPA/SERGEI BOBYLEV / SPUTNIK / KREMLIN POOL