Russian retail will report not only on prices but also on the supply of food

Food retailers will have to report to regional officials in charge of trading, not only on prices but also on trade balances in stores and warehouses.

This was discussed at a meeting of officials on Wednesday with representatives of retailers, manufacturers and suppliers of food in the Ministry of Industry, told three of her party and confirmed by a representative of the Ministry, the newspaper "Vedomosti».

Mandatory reports retail the municipalities of the minimum and maximum prices in stores introduced last Friday - shortly after the government banned the import into Russia of some agricultural products from the United States, the EU, Norway, Canada and Australia. Organize the monitoring of prices, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev instructed his first deputy Igor Shuvalov and Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich in response to an indication of President Vladimir Putin to "take measures to <...> prevent rapid rise in prices for agricultural and food products».

In the list of monitored items 40 kinds of products, from meat and milk to the mandarins and salted fish. These products can account for up to half of the turnover of Russian retail chains and even more, analysts estimate Raiffeisenbank and "Opening of capital." For the same goods retailers will be required to report on stocks, say participants of yesterday's meeting.

Industry and Trade Ministry has already sent out the same forms of retailers reporting on retail prices and trade balances, says the "Auchan" Maria Kurnosov. Retailer fits the shape data for 40 product categories - trade balances in distribution centers and stores - in rubles, and tons of these days, says her colleague from "Dixie" Catherine Kumanin. "These data, we can unload automated, - she added. - Further, these tables every day we send subjects of the Federation. The goal - to prevent food shortages ».

Track and be for a non-chain retailers, and for the agricultural markets. These data should be collected administration markets themselves and guide their regional officials, said the head of the Department of Trade and Services of Moscow Alexey Nemeryuk. In turn, the regions will daily send this information to the Ministry of Industry, whose case - treat it, consolidate in a single document and submit it to the Government Commission on Monitoring and rapid response to changing conditions of food markets, headed by Dvorkovich, said a spokesman for the ministry. Also, watch for prices and trade balances will be the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) and the Federal State Statistics Service.

monitoring of such scale in Russia was not yet and organize them is extremely difficult, says the director of the Center for market research HSE George Ostapkovich. Something like - weekly reports - existed during the Soviet era, when Goskomrezerv and the State Planning Commission, in a mobilization of the economy, he said. A daily report on the balance of food chains will not reflect the real situation, Ostapkovich warns: "More or less objective data are only possible on a weekly interval, because the daily movements do not give any objective results and do not reflect the food situation." He advises to install "at least some high variability, the best - ten record," the more it is costly exercise.

Technical difficulties with no monitoring, says Nemeryuk. "We're almost a week we get these data, we see no problems. We have now finalized an information system to adjust to it under the required parameters. An information system for urban location in the city of cafes and restaurants, and the system with the data of the wholesale food markets ", - he explained.

Monitor will operate a maximum of two or three months, then the officials realize that prices still went to growth and can not be stopped, says Ostapkovich of HSE. Changing logistics of the retail market, retailers have changed suppliers, actually announced the restructuring of agriculture, lists the judge: "It can not go without a price increase, and nothing wrong with that».

Source: Agency Agrofakt