The Fat-and-Oil Union is concerned that the Ministry of Economic Development is going to impose a duty on oil in the same way as it had previously imposed on sunflower.
But buttermakers are confident that if you behave responsibly, you can do without external regulation.
Over the past few months, such an instrument as duty has been very actively used to balance the agricultural market. For example, duties have already been introduced on wheat, barley, corn, soybeans, rapeseed and sunflower. When selling the latter, you will have to pay 30% of the customs duty, but not less than 165 euros per ton.
The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade stated that the department would not mind extending this practice to sunflower oil. A 15% duty is under consideration (at least € 135 per tonne).
However, as Mikhail Maltsev, executive director of the Fat and Oil Union, noted, all these punitive measures from above can be avoided if market participants behave responsibly. Moreover, according to Mikhail, if sunflower producers had carried out self-regulation in time, they could now sell it abroad without any duties. But they were late, did nothing — and it is important for butter makers not to repeat this mistake.
Will an agreement with retailers save you from duties?
So far, this agreement, signed at the end of the year by oil producers and representatives of the largest retail chains, replaces the duty. Its main position is not to raise the price of oil in the domestic market above 95 rubles per liter in wholesale and above 110 rubles in retail. It is assumed that as long as the participants fulfill the agreement in good faith, the sword of Damocles of duty will not fall on their heads.
However, the agreement is valid only until the end of the first quarter of 2021. The Fat-and-Oil Union is afraid that when April comes, oil producers will «break off the chain» and rush to raise prices, which will ultimately punish not only themselves, but the entire market, if the duty is nevertheless imposed.
At the same time, the most important point is that Russia produces much more oil than it consumes — according to the calculations of the Ministry of Agriculture, our country is provided with oil by 176%. This means that almost every second bottle is «extra» and can be sold for export.
Prices on the foreign market are now temptingly high: up to $ 1,350 per ton. And the dollar rate has reached very high values.
This means that oil producers at the moment can make huge profits from foreign trade, exporting their product almost without restrictions.
But with one condition: do not cheat prices for Russians in stores.
