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to the expert of the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR), Yevgeny Ivanov. the area of crops this year was 6% less than in the previous year, and the yield in the south decreased by 25% to 371.6 centners from 1 hectare. A month ago there was a panic on the market because of expectations of a poor harvest in the Krasnodar Territory. IKAR experts expect that this season sugar production will be lower than the forecast consumption level - 5.8mn tons against 6-6.1mn tons. Taking into account last year's reserves of 200,000 tons and imports of about 300,000 tons, there is no shortage in the market. Russia itself will be able to export 150,000–200,000 tons of sugar. From August 1, the preferential duty-free import of raw sugar within the framework of the Eurasia Economic Union (EEU) was canceled. Now it is subject to a duty of $340 per ton. Producers predicted a quick sugar shortage, but the Ministry of National Economy of Kazakhstan rejected this scenario and the likelihood of rising prices.
9.1.7 TMT sector news
Russians in the first half of the year spent on the purchase of goods in foreign online stores $5.19bn, according to statistics from the Central Bank. This is 24% higher than the level of January-June last year. The peak of expenses came in the first quarter, when Russians spent on overseas online purchases reaching $2.72bn (an increase of almost 35%), in the second they fell slightly (to $2.48bn), but still were 13.8% higher last year's level. The growth of online purchases abroad continued, despite the weakening of the ruble against the dollar and the euro in April against the backdrop of new US sanctions. If in the first quarter the dollar cost about 56–57 rubles, in the second quarter its value fluctuated around the level of 62 rubles. for a dollar. The euro exchange rate of 68–71.5 rubles. after the April peak values, reaching 80 rubles, moved to the range of 72.5–74.5 rubles. These statistics forced the Association of E-commerce Companies (ACIT) to revise the forecast for the whole 2018. Earlier, ACIT expected total spending by Russians in foreign online stores for the year at the level of RUB470–480bn. ($6.9-7.3bn at the current rate), told RBC head of the organization Artem Sokolov.
Russian government is considering a bill that would limit the share of foreign ownership in online news aggregators to 20%, similarly to the media ownership ceilings set for foreigners after the 2014 post-Crimea crisis with the West. The news will further pressure sentiment on Russia's internet major Yandex, which operates Yandex.Novosti, one of the largest aggregators, along with Rambler and Mail.ru peers. Reportedly, the government revived the discussions on the bill after a flood of gore headlines and speculations followed recent mass shooting in high school in Kerch, Crimea. But the timing is most unfortunate for Yandex that recently lost over 20% of its capitalisation on rumours that company could come under indirect state control through a creeping take over by country's largest bank Sberbank .
The Association of Big Data Market Participants has been established by Russian internet and digital services majors Yandex, Mail.ru, MegaFon, oneFactor, and Tinkoff Bank, Kommersant daily reported on October 17. The association will be headed by the COO of MegaFon Anna Serebryanikova. The association will draft united practices and standards of big data processing, storage, and use, setting the rule of the game for the largest players in the market estimated to reach RUB500bn-800bn in the next five years. Serebryanikova told the daily that state integrated telecom major
95 RUSSIA Country Report November 2018 www.intellinews.com