Wheat is not considered

Incomplete use of the FSIS “Zerno”, which should track all deliveries of the crop, can lead to financial problems for farmers. The Ministry of Agriculture is already planning to make work in the system mandatory in order to receive subsidies for the production and sale of grain. This may be an incentive for farmers, but according to experts, the system still needs to be improved.

The Ministry of Agriculture is dissatisfied with the incomplete use by some market participants of the FSIS “Grain”, which should track all deliveries of the crop – from production to processing. This was told to Kommersant by the participants in the meeting at the ministry on October 12, where the issue was discussed. According to them, less grain is now recorded in the system than is harvested in the country, and to improve the situation, the Ministry of Agriculture can make the submission of information to the FSIS “Grain” a condition for receiving subsidies for growing grain. In 2022, it was planned to allocate 20 billion rubles for these purposes.

FSIS “Grain” became mandatory for market participants from September 1 this year. Agricultural producers must provide the system with information on the gross harvest, draw up accompanying documents for the transportation, sale, acceptance and shipment of grain, including for export. As previously noted in the Ministry of Agriculture, FSIS “Zerno” should allow businesses to operate in a transparent market, and the state will receive end-to-end control over the quality and safety of raw materials and processed products.

As Kommersant was told in the Ministry of Agriculture, almost all market participants work in the system – more than 99 thousand organizations, and by October 13, batches of grain with a total volume of 116.3 million tons – 74% of the current gross harvest. As noted in the Ministry of Agriculture, according to information from a number of regions, individual companies do not yet provide full data entry, and the system operator is consulting with such market participants. Against this background, the Ministry of Agriculture has also prepared a draft government decree, according to which work with the FSIS “Grain” will become mandatory in order to receive subsidies for the production and sale of grain, a representative of the ministry confirmed. According to him, while the draft document is undergoing regulatory procedures.

Andrey Neduzhko, CEO of the Steppe agricultural holding, notes that in the first half of September there were short-term failures in the system, but now they have been eliminated. Now, without the documentation drawn up in the FSIS “Grain”, it is impossible to make a sale and purchase transaction, put the crop in storage or move it, he points out.

A Kommersant source in another agricultural holding says that due to falling wheat prices on the domestic market due to a record harvest and weak exports, a number of agricultural producers are holding back sales. And such grain may not be entered into the system, since there is no transfer of ownership and no transportation, he explains. As Kommersant’s interlocutor notes, harvesting is an ongoing process, and entering data into the system can be difficult. According to Kommersant’s sources, Avangard-Agro, Agroholding KDV and ABH Miratorg were named among those who did not fully use the FSIS Zerno at the meeting. The companies did not provide comments.

The interlocutor of Kommersant in the industry believes that the threat of deprivation of subsidies can increase the discipline of a number of farmers. And the president of the Russian Grain Union (RGU), Arkady Zlochevsky, notes that market participants as a result may lose the funds necessary for work through no fault of their own, but because of the imperfection of the system. So, according to him, due to the fixation of one batch of grain at different stages, data on deliveries can be summarized, which leads to errors in the results. The Ministry of Agriculture assures that the system functions stably.

Andrey Sizov, the director of Sovecon, believes that market participants do not need such a detailed specification of the supply chain, which is offered by FSIS Zerno. And there is no open access to such indicators as the dynamics of harvesting by region, stocks, productivity, export volumes, which are just needed, he points out. For example, the expert notes, corn harvesting is greatly delayed due to rains, which came as a surprise to many buyers and led to higher prices.

Alexey Polukhin