Page 141 - RusRPTJan23

Swedish fashion retailer H&M announced on December 15 that it had closed its last remaining stores in Russia and Belarus, wrapping up its progressive withdrawal from both countries due to the invasion of Ukraine. After ceasing sales in Russia in March following Russian troops being ordered into Ukraine, H&M announced in July that it would withdraw from Russia at a cost of 2.1bn Swedish kronor ($205mn). Russia was the group's sixth-largest market at the end of 2021 and represented some $200 million in revenue during the last quarter of 2021.
9.1.6 Agriculture sector news
Russia’s grain harvest in the current agricultural year may reach 153mn metric tonnes, including 111mn metric tonnes of wheat, smashing the previous all time high, Director of the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies Dmitry Rylko said in December. Rylko added that due to a decline in exports to Russia this year, a record-breaking wheat stocks of 17.7mn metric tonnes could be formed by the end of the season. The forecast of the Ministry of Agriculture for the grain harvest in Russia in 2022 was 150mn metric tonnes, including 100mn metric tonnes of wheat.
Russia has sown 17.7mn hectares to winter crops compared to a 19mn hectare plan for 2022 because of weather problems, the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement on December 8.
The volume of agricultural production in Russia in January-October 2022, according to preliminary estimates, increased by 5% y/y and amounted to 7.2 trillion rubles ($117.9bn), according to the Russian State Statistics Service (Rosstat). In October 2022, the figure amounted to 1.31 trillion rubles ($21.45bn). The Russian State Statistics Service reported earlier that inflation in Russia on November 22-28, 2022, amounted to 0.19%. A week earlier, inflation in Russia was at the level of 0.11%.
The high result for this year’s harvest may be connected to the fact that Russia has stolen, destroyed $1.9bn worth of agricultural products in Ukraine. The estimated 2.8mn metric tonnes of grain and 1.2mn tonnes of oil seeds were destroyed or stolen because of Russia’s war against Ukraine, according to the Center for Food and Land Use Research of the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE).
Russia can harvest 83–90mn tonnes of wheat in 2023, Igor Pavensky, director of the strategic marketing department of railway grain transport operator Rusagrotrans, said on December 9. "Being optimistic, if the weather is the same as during the harvesting season this year, we can reach 90mn tonnes," Pavensky said, adding that the main forecast of the company is moderate at about 83mn tonnes. The official said that winter sowing was fairly successful, with about 3% of poor quality crops, the same as in 2021. A
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