The cost of the borscht set went up again: the leading ingredient was determined

The closer to spring, the more anxious we are watching the prices of our borscht set. It is, in principle, understandable. The terrible word “seasonality” means that all vegetables begin to deteriorate at the end of winter, there is a shortage of them and prices go up. “The first swallow” has already arrived. The price of onions has risen sharply. Which vegetable will follow suit?

According to Rosstat, from February 2022 to February this year, the cost of onions in the wholesale sector increased by 28%, to 19 rubles per kilogram. In retail, I don’t even want to say, it has risen in price even more, to 34-37 rubles, that is, by 70 percent. Moreover, onions on the shelves are, to put it mildly, not always of high quality. As housewives complain, there are black bulbs on sale – already beaten by frost. And still – for 35 rubles ….

However, according to the statement of the Ministry of Agriculture, which traditionally calls the situation with prices stable, one should not be particularly upset. Of the entire borscht set, onions are the only vegetable that showed growth compared to last year. The rest of the set fell in price: cabbage by 60%, potatoes by 37%, beets by 29%, carrots by 20%, to 19 rubles per kilogram. Here it is appropriate to recall that a year ago the prices of a vegetable set anomalously soared in price – and then, of course, they corrected downwards. All but one product…

The formal explanation for the frenzied prices for onions is that our Central Asian partners in the CIS refused to supply, because in winter they have the same trouble as in Russia. They did not expect snow and frost, the warehouses were not heated, and a significant part of the bow died.

But experts believe that the loss of supplies from the Central Asian republics means little to us. On average, Russia collects about 1.5 million tons of onions. In recent years, its plantings have been slowly but surely declining. The onion is being replaced by the exotic leek, which is very popular in the West, and today it is also conquering our market. The price of a leek in a store is astronomical, from 260 to 300 rubles per kilogram – more expensive than pork! It is clear that it is much more profitable for producers to engage in such a culture, this is not a pig that needs to be fattened for six months …

Import is about 180 thousand tons. Moreover, the main supplies come from Egypt and China. Our Central Asian friends in this niche occupy about 60 thousand tons.

In general, there will be no shortage of onion, prices for it will grow and, as it is easy to assume, not only for it.

There is a strange situation here. The official comments emphasize that onions have “significantly risen in price” over the past 12 months, that is, for a whole year. But no one says that during 11 of these 12 months, it “significantly became cheaper”, in stores in the first days of January it cost 15-16 rubles per kilogram. It “broke through” from the beginning of 2023, when retail chains stopped holding prices for “socially important products” and the cost of onions went into rapid growth.

It’s time to ask the question: what will happen to the rest of the ingredients of the borscht set? Will potatoes rise in price, which now (of a very decent quality) costs 23 rubles – exactly half as much as a year ago. Or a carrot – today’s red price for it is 19-22 rubles, while a year ago it was under the “fifty kopeck”?

We agree that there is a reason for such a reversal in prices – a psychological one. We have become accustomed to everything, especially when our storage facilities are empty, and from all the gaps, the rise in inflation is explained by the seasonality of the moment. The climate, the seasons are to blame, but not the authorities, who never created modern storage facilities where the domestic crop could not deteriorate until the next harvest.

According to Stepan Solomnikov, a farmer from the Ruzsky district of the Moscow region, if the price of potatoes goes up, it will be insignificant. A vegetable from the potato regions constantly calls to his small shop, asking to take it for sale.

– There are many tubers in the regions, – he says. – They try to implement them faster. From Bryansk they offer 12-14 rubles in bulk, this is without delivery. For transportation, you still need to throw in 2.5 rubles per kilogram. In storage, they are already beginning to germinate, it must be sorted out, shifted, blown. And the hour of operation of the ventilation system is 50 kilowatts, all this is a big expense. You need to get rid of the crop before April, then it is no longer marketable.

Then we are waiting for potatoes from Egypt and Iran. It already now appears in some stores, 50 rubles per kilogram. Who will take 50 each, when there is a native domestic one for 23?

According to the farmer’s long-term observations, onions will continue to rise in prices until July, when a new crop will come from the southern regions. Carrots are still getting more expensive, although statistics do not notice this yet. In retail chains, Belarusian is sold – cheap, not of the highest quality. And good varieties for salads and snacks are already under 30 rubles.