The Union of Flour Mills warned about a possible shortage of rye bread in the Russian Federation

President of the Union of Flour and Cereal Enterprises Igor Sviridenko said at a briefing that in 2023 Russia could reduce the rye harvest to 1.8 million tons (in 2022, according to Rosstat, 2.179 million tons). According to him, this could lead to the fact that rye bread will become a rarity in the Russian Federation, reports Interfax.

“We are faced with a situation where either we will not have rye bread in sufficient quantities, or it will become – I use this term – a pseudo-relict. Borodino bread will cost more than high-quality varieties of wheat bread simply due to the cost of raw materials,” said Mr. Sviridenko.

The president of the union said that of the 1.8 million tons of expected rye harvest, 59% is third class rye. According to him, such quality indicators are “not good” from the point of view of the technological requirements of flour millers. According to Mr. Sviridenko, rye “fell out of sight of government agencies, because rye flour produces only 10% in relation to wheat.”

As Interfax reports, the head of the Commission of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry on the agro-industrial complex, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Petr Chekmarev, said at the “Mill-2023” conference that Russia has every chance of remaining without rye in 2024, because agricultural producers will not deal with this grain from -for high prices.

“Today rye costs 5 thousand rubles per ton – this is not within any limits. If the price does not rise to 10 thousand rubles per ton, then next year, if we meet, you will say that we cannot buy rye for 15 thousand rubles,” said Mr. Chekmarev.

Erdni Kagaltynov