More recently, the media was full of messages: "Turkish tomatoes are returning." What happened? Have the sanctions been lifted? Does the government establish relations with its southern neighbor? These and other issues will be discussed later.
Official message
According to the Minister of Economy, from December 1 this year, the ban on the import of certain agricultural products is canceled. Earlier it was already allowed to import salad, zucchini and eggplant. This time, Turkish tomatoes were discussed.
Only four Turkish enterprises fell under the mercy of the Russian government. The official announcement came from the mouth of the head of the Ministry of Energy, Alexander Novak. He noted that a simple permit to import Turkish tomatoes is not enough. On the Russian side, it is necessary to prepare a number of documents, as well as create a sanitary control service.
How much was allowed to import
Despite the fact that the government lifted sanctions on Turkish tomatoes, they won’t appear in large numbers in the country. In total, it is allowed to import 50 thousand tons of products. This is enough to provide central European areas. The regions of the North and the Far East will receive only partial shipments. Tomatoes from Azerbaijan, Morocco and China will remain available to them.
Experts note: despite the fact that the embargo on Turkish tomatoes was introduced in 2016, they nevertheless fell on Russian shelves. This happened fraudulently through re-import. What does it mean?
Everything is pretty simple. Consider an example. There is such a country - Azerbaijan, which imports most of the fruits and vegetables to us. He didn’t have enough of his tomato volume to replace the share of Turkish produce, and he bought tomatoes in Ankara and imported them in Russia, posing as his own.
Tight control
President of the National Union of Producers Sergei Korolev expressed his concerns about the control of the number of tomatoes. He is sure that 50 thousand tons is not the limit, and the Russian market needs much more. Now, in the early stages of the resumption of relations, it will still be possible to control supplies, but in a year the share of shadow imports will increase.
Every year, 150-200 thousand tons of Turkish tomatoes enter the Russian market through Kazakhstan, Belarus and Azerbaijan, which causes significant damage to the economy, since it is considered a shadow. In addition, the ability to control the quality of such products is excluded.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijani Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev assures that buying tomatoes and then reselling them is absolutely unprofitable. The average price per kilogram of juicy fruits from Turkey is $ 1.15, and they sell their own to Russia for $ 0.97. Thus, it makes no sense to buy more expensive and sell cheaper.
The fight for quality
In social networks more than once it was possible to see flashy headlines that the goods imported from Turkey are of very poor quality. This was true not only for vegetables, but also for furniture, clothes, and everyday goods. The situation was assessed by the Director General of the National Consumer Rights Protection Fund Alexander Kalinin.
Rospotrebnadzor finds marriage and quality mismatch in goods imported not only from neighboring countries, but also from countries of the European Union and South America. According to 2017 data, over the past 12 months there has been only one precedent with a Turkish poultry farm, in the production of which an increased number of listeria was found. Negotiations were held and the situation was corrected.
In general, the quality of Turkish tomatoes is very high. This is noted not only by the employees of Rospotrebnadzor, but also by our compatriots who missed delicious tomatoes. And in case of detection of any violations, the issues are resolved very simply. Representatives of quality control companies are negotiating with Turkish enterprises, express their wishes or concerns, and the other side, in turn, corrects the shortcomings.
Benefit for Russia
The off-season import of tomatoes is beneficial for both our country and our southern neighbor. Winter and spring there is nothing to offer domestic farmers. In the summer and autumn seasons, Russian farmers compete well with the Turks, since vegetables are harvested on the open ground, tomatoes are of high quality, and their price is significantly lower than that of imported counterparts.
Experts believe that Russian farmers will be alarmed by this decision. Due to the fact that Turkish tomatoes are returning to the market, many domestic enterprises will have to lower prices, which will lead to a decrease in profitability and, possibly, the bankruptcy of some small vegetable farms.
Tomato market in Russia
In general, the forecasts and the situation on the tomato market in Russia over the past 2-3 years are disappointing. When the embargo on Turkish vegetables was introduced in 2016, the government of our country was sure that it would be possible to cover the shortage by domestic producers. But that did not happen. The highest productivity indicators are in the Republic of Dagestan. Over the past year, its sown areas yielded a yield of 3.323 thousand tons. A new industrial park Avangard was launched near Khabarovsk with the participation of Japanese investors. Here a crop of tomatoes in the amount of 1.4 thousand tons was harvested. For example, the need of the Khabarovsk Territory alone for these vegetables is 160 thousand tons.
In 2015-2017, sown areas decreased by 1.2%, and the yield decreased by 2.8%. In general, the volume of our own products exceeds import by 6.3 times.
In total, in 2016, 2, 839 thousand tons of red vegetables were harvested in Russia. 80% of this number are tomatoes harvested from open ground, and 20% are grown in greenhouses.
Tomato consumption last year decreased by 4.7%, compared with 2015. This is due to two factors. The first is a decrease in purchasing power, the second is the introduction of an embargo on Turkish tomatoes. The indicator of the amount of consumption of juicy vegetables per capita in 2016 amounted to 23.9 kg per year, which is 2.3% less than the previous result.
Import and export of tomatoes in Russia
The Russian government has instructed to satisfy the needs of the domestic market on its own. This has led to a decrease in imports. Naturally, these facts have a positive effect on the development of farms (especially the greenhouse business), the area of which has increased. But agricultural enterprises are constantly faced with a number of problems that make it impossible to develop. First of all, there is not enough financial support or investor partners.
Today, imports account for 24% of the total market. After Turkish tomatoes disappeared in Russia, the main “foreigners” on the counter were vegetables from Morocco (88.7 thousand tons were imported in 2016) and Azerbaijan (86 thousand tons). But still, the efforts of these and other countries failed to fully cover the shortage of imported vegetables.
As for export, our country sells goods mainly to its neighbor Ukraine, but these transactions are not regular, but episodic in nature.
Relations history Moscow - Ankara
Since 2003, relations between Russia and Turkey have been friendly. Since May 2010 there was a visa-free regime. But everything changed after one unpleasant incident.
In November 2015, a Russian Su-24 fighter was shot down on the territory of its southern neighbor. According to the enemy side, he violated the borders of Turkey and was considered enemy. Recall that in 2015, Russia took part in the settlement of the Syrian conflict.
After that, all military relations between Moscow and Ankara were terminated. The Ministry of Tourism recommended that fellow citizens do not go to the resorts of the enemy side, and after a while the tour operators suspended the sale of tours in this direction.
But that is not all. Most importantly, an embargo was imposed on imports of many consumer goods, and tomatoes were among them.
In 2016, Turkish Prime Minister R. Erdogan made attempts to renew relations. Negotiations were underway to resume a visa-free regime. At this stage of relations, trade relations are being established. Many categories of vegetables are now available for purchase.
