The cost of 1 kg of onion in Russia for the first time exceeded 70 rubles

The average cost of 1 kg of onions in Russian stores in May increased to 73.3 rubles, which is the highest value in the entire history of observation since at least 2000. writes RBC with reference to Rosstat data.

In monthly terms, the cost of onions increased by 9%, and in annual terms – by 29%. In the past ten years, onion prices have fluctuated in the range of 30-40 rubles, the newspaper notes.

How wrote Vedomosti in February, onions turned out to be the only product from the borscht set (it also includes beets, cabbage, potatoes and carrots), which has risen in price in 2022. The issue of rising prices for onions was then discussed separately at a meeting with the Minister of Agriculture Dmitry Patrushev. The Ministry of Agriculture associated such dynamics with bad weather conditions in the supplier countries of Central Asia. In order to avoid a deficit, the authorities of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan banned the export of onions from their territories to neighboring countries, including Russia.

The executive director of the National Fruit and Vegetable Union, Andrey Kazakov, in a conversation with RBC, also linked the rise in onion prices to a crop failure in the countries of Central Asia against the backdrop of an abnormally cold winter. Due to frosts, vegetables stored in unheated warehouses simply deteriorated, and now stocks have already decreased in domestic vegetable stores, he noted.

At the same time, Kazakov stressed that the harvest of Russian onions would soon be harvested, due to which the supply would rise sharply, and prices would decrease. At the same time, the expert drew attention to the lack of storage facilities for the autumn-winter period. “If we have new vegetable stores, we will be able to solve the problem of preserving the harvest,” he summed up.

In the week from June 27 to July 3, inflation accelerated again in Russia, informed earlier Rosstat, reaching 3.43% after 3.21% and 2.96% in the past two weeks. Fruit and vegetable prices rose by 0.47% after 0.31% a week earlier. As Rosstat noted, in 15 regions of the Russian Federation, onions rose in price by 0.1-4.9%, while in 55 regions they fell in price by 0.1-6.0%, and in nine regions – by 6.1-14.6% . The price index for onion exceeded the value of December 2022 by 200.5%, followed from the materials of the department.