Why the price of vegetables go up?

There are legends that the best love potion is borscht. But it seems that very soon the young seductresses will have to invent new methods of winning men's hearts, because now borsch (as in that famous fairy tale) is not simple, but golden. In Russian stores and markets the prices of carrots, potatoes, beets and other vegetables skyrocketed. For example, Rosstat reports that the cost of "soup set" has doubled, but consumers are talking about a price hike of 300% or more. 

In May of this year the first rise in prices for beets and carrots was recorded in the Central and Southern regions. It seemed that the situation would stabilize in summer, but it was not to be. In Moscow the price of the most expensive vegetable - carrots - is now about 100 rubles per kg, in Saratov - 150 rubles, in Ulyanovsk - 190 rubles, and finally, in Volgograd - over 200 rubles. 

With the rise in prices came a shortage of vegetables. If you walk around the stores, to your surprise you can find empty shelves and counters. In Moscow and the region still have vegetables, albeit expensive. But the farther away from the capital, the more interesting - for example, people from Chelyabinsk and Kaliningrad complain about the complete disappearance of carrots, and people from Ryazan can not find either carrots or beets. Magadans have even more "fun": the leftovers are sweet, so the price tag in some stores has exceeded the mark of 500 rubles per kg. 

- In principle, if you don't buy anything, the prices are normal... - customers say with irony.

So who is to blame? Bad crops? The pandemic and the covid? Or the government?

There are many opinions, but we should not forget that a complex of reasons influenced the rise in prices. For example, economists believe that it is customary: the price of vegetables in the pre-harvest period always goes up. And in the previous year, production was limited because of the low yield due to the weather - first there was drought, and then the rains were a wall. Therefore, on top of everything else, the vegetables turned out to be unstable. Forecasts of demand did not come true, there were not enough stocks for a year.

In addition, now the conditions in storage facilities are not quite favorable for the preservation of products. And all because we need to build vegetable storage facilities together with Agrovent! No kidding: farmers sow carrots and other vegetables, and after harvesting they put them in storage, where they can maintain quality, attractive appearance and freshness for a long time. This will help avoid such unpleasant "windows" of supply between harvests.

Farmers, for their part, say they are desperately short of workers. The personnel shortage has reached its peak - foreigners are not coming, and locals do not want to work. The result: a reduction in the area under crops, because there will be no one to harvest the crops anyway. Or such services will be very expensive.

Well, the list would be incomplete without mentioning the main factor: coronavirus, which has led to increased demand on the world market and problems with logistics. This, in turn, is used by importers, raising prices. We should not forget about the "floating" ruble exchange rate, which clearly does not help in international transactions.

Will the new harvest save us?

A correction in wholesale prices for open field vegetables and potatoes is expected as the new crop is harvested. The Vegetable Union expects the price of carrots to drop in the coming weeks.

Carrots, for example, should drop in price in the next two weeks. In the fall of 2020, we saw the price of it - 15 rubles. And 10 years ago it was the same. Will they be like that in the fall of 2021? We'll wait and see.

• vegetable storage