Russian gardeners faced with 40% price hike for seeds this sowing season

(19 Apr 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chelyabinsk, Russia - 14 April 2024
1. Various of garden store and customers choosing flower seedlings
2. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Natalia, no last name given, vendor of garden goods:
"The prices for the entire range (of goods in the store) have risen by approximately 40 percent. It has been happening for the last two years. It wasn't an instant growth, but gradual."
3. Various of customers of garden store choosing seeds
4. Various of seeds on display
5. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Natalia, no last name given, vendor of garden goods:
"All companies that pack seeds (for the Russian market) usually bring them from the Netherlands. The price tag has naturally increased due to transport expenses because of the sanctions."
6. Various of people queueing at cashier's desk
7. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Natalia, no last name given, vendor of garden goods:
"The range (of Russia-produced goods) has started widening in planting material, seedlings. It used to be (imported from) Poland and the Netherlands, but now our Russian nurseries have learned how to make good quality (planting) material. The import substitution has gone well in this regard. Regarding seeds, those Russian producers that were (in the market before the sanctions) remain there, no new ones have popped up yet."
8. Packs of seeds in greenhouse
9. Olga Fedotova, gardener, showing packs of seeds, UPSOUND (Russian):
"I have found an old pack of regular cheap seeds (produced in) 2018. There are a lot of seeds in the pack. Here (you can see). And I have bought the fresh (pack of) chervil (seeds produced by) The Gardens of Russia. If you open the pack, there are almost no seeds. Here you go."
10. Chervil seeds
11. Various of Fedotova showing plants in greenhouse
12. Fedotova's garden
13. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Olga Fedotova, gardener:
"The quality of seeds has worsened much. They don't sprout, a lot of them are broken (in a pack), and the weight (of seeds in a pack) is minimal. You recoup the cost of seeds end-to-end."
14. Various of Fedotova uncovering patch
15. Various of Fedotova tilling tulips
STORYLINE:
While the sowing season in Russia is gaining momentum, horticulturists queue in garden shops and many of them are disconcerted by biting prices.

The vendors of planting materials confirm that they had to change price tags because of their suppliers.

"The prices for the entire range (of goods in the store) have risen by approximately 40 percent," Natalia, a vendor of garden goods in Chelyabinsk, said.

Logistical difficulties with the E.U., the largest seed importer to Russia, began in 2022.

Some Western seed producers, like American Corteva Agriscience, exited Russia shortly after the country started its special military operation in Ukraine, and this narrowed the market and pushed prices up.

Those companies that remain in Russia now face new regulations: since 1 March, any foreign seed producer can only work in the country after the localisation of its original production within Russia at a joint enterprise, owning a share of 49% or less in it.

Euroseeds, a non-profit association for the seed industry in the European Union, warned Russian authorities that the new rules threaten local operations of its members in the country.

In another attempt to boost its own production of sowing material, Russia limited late January the import of some sorts of seeds, including potato, corn and others, from the so-called "unfriendly" countries, including the E.U. and the U.S.
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