Page 87 - bne IntelliNews monthly country report Russia February 2024

9.1.6 Agriculture sector news
Russia’s sugar production in the 2023–2024 season that started on August 1, 2023 may grow by 9.7% on the year to 6.8mn tonnes, Yevgeny Ivanov, leading expert at the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR), said on December 1 during a conference. In the previous season, Russia made 6.2mn tonnes of sugar. Ivanov also said that production creates conditions for replenishment of the state intervention fund, but the government is yet to launch the mechanism on the sugar market. This is not great, because after the 2019–2020 season, the country’s sugar production plunged to 5.2mn tonnes, which is below the consumption level of 5.8mn tonnes, and only commercial stocks of sugar allowed the sector to weather the season, he said.
The price of chicken eggs has skyrocketed in Russia 2023. According to Vladimir Gutenev, the head of the State Duma’s Industry and Trade Commission, the reason for this is that Russians are eating more meat products and poultry than ever. “The quality of life of our citizens has increased,” Gutenev explained in an interview on December 22. President Putin recently linked spiking egg prices to growing demand and rising incomes and criticized the government for failing to supplement Russia’s egg supply with imports.
87 RUSSIA Country Report February 2024 www.intellinews.com