Farmers meet difficulties with commodity trading

The Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia held a meeting on the situation with prices for mineral fertilizers. It was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia, the Federal Antimonopoly Service, and the companies producing mineral fertilizers.

The meeting was organized due to complaints of the authorities of the Krasnodar and Stavropol regions to the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia upon the rise in prices for mineral fertilizers and the impossibility to conclude direct contracts with suppliers for the autumn sowing campaign.

Within the increase in export prices, the cost of mineral fertilizers in the domestic market has also increased, and farmers don’t want to take them at current prices under direct contracts. Besides, prices at the exchange have also raised.

According to the statement of the General Director of Steppe Agroholding Andrey Neduzhko, while large companies have a well-established process of working at the exchange, smaller farms, which haven’t used such a mechanism before, face difficulties.

“Now the farmer is forced to spend time on the registration procedure on the exchange, attract brokers and pay commission. However, even the exchange mechanism doesn’t guarantee the purchase of the required amount of fertilizers, and even more so it doesn’t save from the growth of cost,” said Andrey Neduzhko.

Source: Kommersant