Grain growers ask to cancel export duties

Such a proposal is indicated in a letter sent to the President of Russia.

There is only one main idea — it is necessary to cancel export duties on the export of grain from the Russian Federation, as well as oilseeds and oil itself.

One reason is that the duty interferes with full-fledged exports.

But this year Russia has collected about 150 million tons of grain, so it is simply unrealistic to sell such a volume on the domestic market.

However, «thanks» to the floating export duty, it is very difficult to get any significant profit from the sale of agricultural products abroad.

At the same time, if nothing is done, prices on the domestic market will fall very quickly, because they will be “pressed” by the huge amount of grain that has accumulated inside the country.

Shoppers might be happy about the decline, but it’s all but wiping out profits for growers, which could dampen their desire to grow the same big crop next season.

What to replace the fee with?

 

According to the proposals of the RGU, everything is very simple: to ensure that the domestic market is not left without grain, it is enough to set export quotas.

This season, given the large harvest, they should be high, at the level of 55 million tons.

It makes no sense to leave this volume in the country, because own consumption in the Russian Federation does not exceed 80 million tons, everything else will simply not be in demand.

As noted in the Union, the quota could play the role of a kind of barrier that would “close” after the required volumes were taken out. And this would fully replace the export duty.

By the way, the RGU is also dissatisfied with the «historical principle» in the formation of quotas.

According to him, who exported the most grain last season, he receives the maximum volume for the current one.

Accordingly, if some exporter exported little, or just entered the market, he receives practically nothing.

But under the current conditions, this is unacceptable, the RGU notes, because today the country is actively looking for alternative buyers in other parts of the world, so working on the “as before” principle is extremely inefficient.

The Ministry of Agriculture thinks that everything is fine

 

It is worth noting that similar wishes have already been expressed in the Union, but in September the Ministry of Agriculture replied that there was nothing to worry about: the measures that are currently being taken to support farmers are quite sufficient.

However, farmers themselves fundamentally disagree with this.

They demand, in addition to normalizing the situation with quotas and duties, also provide the industry with soft loans, which should receive both producers and processors of grain and seeds.

The latter, for example, would benefit from money for the purchase and storage of the crop until it is processed and sold.