Page 74 - RusRPTJune18

for growth. "In principle, there are only two companies on the market developing actively - X5 and Magnit," Pombukhchan said as cited by Reuters, estimating their shares on the food retail market at 9% and 7.9%, respectively.
9.1.6 Agriculture sector news
Russia is on track to bring in yet another solid grain harvest of 116.9mn tonnes after collecting a record-high harvest of 134mn tonnes in 2017, according to estimates from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Russian Ministry of Agriculture expects a harvest of 115mn tonnes. These forecasts are seen as conservative by independent market watchers surveyed by Vedomosti daily on May 11 and suggest that the harvest in 2018 could top 120mn tonnes for the third year in a row. Previously the head of the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR) Dmitry Rylko suggested that Russia’s export of grain may double to 52mn tonnes in the 2018 agricultural season. Within this number, the export of wheat is also expected to rise and account for 40mn tonnes of exports, which is a record figure. In 2017 Russia earned $20bn from grain exports, which is expected to rise this year even if the weight of grain produced is lower than last year. "There is a possibility that the volume of wheat exports, taking into account the illegal exports to Kazakhstan, that took place this year (up to half a million tonnes) will total 40mn tonnes. This is, of course, a colossal record.” “Last year, for the first time in history we exported 27mn tonnes (of wheat) and it seemed to be a record. This year wheat exports may reach 40mn tonnes. As for all cereals, according to our estimates, exports may amount to 51-52mn tonnes," Rylko said as cited by Tass. In 2017 Russia earned $20bn from the export of grain – more than it earned from the export of arms. While the expert gave no estimate of the value of the wheat exports, the revenues could climb to well over $30bn this year if not more.
Russia in the first quarter of 2018 significantly increased the import of palm oil in comparison with the same period in 2017 - by 35.8% to 267,000 tons, Rosstat reported today. In 2017, Russia imported 891,000 tons of palm oil and its fractions, which was 0.7% more than in 2016. At the beginning of last year, palm oil imports were almost 16% lower than in 2016. Import of sunflower oil, safflower or cotton, and their fractions for the quarter increased 2.8 times to 8 700 tons. Import of coconut, palm kernel or babassu oil and their fractions in the first three months of 2018 decreased by 14.4% to 16 800 t. The Ministry of Agriculture of Russia intends to prohibit the use of vegetable fats in the production of all dairy products. According to the ex-Minister of Agriculture Alexander Tkachev, cheaper substitutes for milk fat in 2017 did not give 1.5mn tons of raw milk from Russian producers. Russia provides itself with dairy products only 75%, the rest - imports, mainly from Belarus. The production of raw milk in the country does not rise above 30 to 31mn tons for almost a decade.
9.1.7 TMT sector news
The drafts of the laws "“On digital financial assets” and “On accumulation of investments using investment platforms” passed by Russian State Duma on May 22 include establishing special operators supervising cryptocurrency deals. The accumulation of money through the sale of digital financial assets to investors will be carried out through special exchange operators, Russian Legal Information Agency reported citing the
74 RUSSIA Country Report June 2018 www.intellinews.com