For the poor and schoolchildren in Russia proposed to introduce milk stamps

At the beginning of this year, it turned out that domestic livestock breeders unexpectedly overfulfilled the milk yield plan. You need to rejoice, if not for a single “but”. Prices for dairy products have not decreased. But warehouses and storage facilities, according to news agencies, are bursting at the seams from the accumulated stocks of milk powder, kefir and cheese. How to deal with surplus? Farmers are thinking about how to introduce milk coupons for the poor – good to go to waste!

The situation is quite dire. Dry milk stocks account for 240%, and for cheeses they exceed 64%. Officials, as if knowing nothing about the sanctions, advise farmers not to waste time and export the surplus abroad. The peasants would be happy, but the restrictions do not allow it. In addition, there are specific problems with payment for international settlements.

In order not to waste the good, manufacturers are proposing to introduce milk stamps for the poor, the military and schoolchildren. The proposal, we note, is so-so: how long does the public urge the authorities to introduce food stamps for socially unprotected segments of the population, and things, as they say, are still there. It is possible that “milk coupons” will suffer the same sad fate.

What to do?

Last year, our peasants milked 800,000 tons more milk than in 2021. And domestic consumption of dairy products, due to high retail prices, decreased by an average of 250 thousand tons. Incidentally, it has been declining for more than a year now. In 2020, there were 240 liters of milk per capita, in 2021 – already 208, and last year – 164 liters.

The trend is that prices for buyers need to be reduced, then sales will increase. According to statistical sources, they really began to decline. In particular, for milk in April by 4.2%, for butter by 1.1%, for cheese – by 0.8%. However, we simply don’t feel such a “fall” in prices in stores: there was a liter package of milk for 120 rubles, now it’s 118 …

But what consumers do not notice, farmers notice. Due to the overproduction of milk (or its “underconsumption” by Russians), the purchase prices for livestock products from farmers have decreased from 25 rubles per liter to 22 rubles. And for products from personal subsidiary farms, up to 16 at all. Whereas the cost of producing a liter of milk costs at least 22 rubles.

There is only one thing left – to take the cows to the meat processing plant. And the process, as they say, has begun …

The overproduction of agricultural products is both good news and bad news. The good news is that unplanned records happen in the agricultural sector. And the bad thing is that there are no conditions for storing products, as if we ourselves do not believe that we can have serious surpluses. After all, the record-breaking grain harvest in Russia is the same story. Before the new harvest, about 26 million tons of “extra” grain may remain in the elevators. How much money is spent on maintaining them in a commercial form? And where to pour the new crop, which is just around the corner?

At the end of February, when domestic potatoes usually run out, their stocks in Russian farms amounted to 60%. Nowhere to go too! We do not have modern warehouses for either one or the other, or the third; as before, many farms adapt former churches for storage.

Milk is more difficult. After all, this is a perishable product, how and how long can it be stored?

“When milk has nowhere to go, it is turned into powdered milk using a certain technology,” explains Dmitry Valigursky, professor of economics and practicing livestock farmer. – It can be stored for years. From one kilogram, 10 liters of ordinary milk are obtained, although, of course, it is inferior in quality to ordinary milk. But it turns out significant savings, a liter of about 20-22 rubles. Ordinary raw milk is stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, pasteurized – from a week to two, depending on the method of pasteurization. And sterilized can stand for a whole year …

To save the day, some experts are proposing to include cheese and butter in the government procurement program for social institutions and the army. Then the military will not need coupons, they are all on food allowances.

In general, why do we need this extra bookkeeping, some kind of coupons, if there is simply nowhere to put food? Isn’t it easier to throw the surplus on the market at symbolic prices? For all categories of the population? True, in the 90s of the last century, when there was a shortage of food, many people bought powdered milk in order to make normalized milk out of it. And they didn’t really succeed. Maybe this time it will work?