"On March 16, 2021, a draft decree of the Government of the Russian Federation" On agreements between the federal executive authorities and economic entities to reduce and maintain prices for mineral fertilizers in 2021 was posted on the site for public discussion of regulatory legal acts.
In me, in particular, it is proposed on behalf of the chairman of the government of the Russian Federation M.V. Mishoustina will fix the instructions to the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation together with the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation to conclude agreements with manufacturers and suppliers of mineral fertilizers to reduce and maintain prices until July 1, 2021.
Domestic fertilizer manufacturers once again would like to emphasize the attention that the Russian market for them is a strategic priority. Fertilizers comes to the domestic market than any other country of the world. Over the past 5 years, Russian agrarians have increased the use of mineral fertilizers one and a half times. The demand for mineral fertilizers declared by the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia for 2021 was 4.52 million tons D.V., which is almost a quarter more compared to 2020. By 2024, the Ministry of Agriculture planned a two-time consumption of mineral fertilizers.
To ensure the growing needs of Russian agrarians in fertilizers and the preservation of conquered positions in foreign markets in the next 5 years, the RAPAP company invests over 1.6 trillion rubles. According to the investmentplants, by 2026 the industry will increase by 70% (compared with 2013)
The Russian market is one of the most stable markets in the world, and Russian manufacturers are interested in its development. In this connection, there are systematic support for domestic agrarians aimed at increasing the availability of mineral fertilizers.
In particular, the method of pricing the federal antimonopoly service for mineral fertilizers has been successfully applied in Russia, and fertilizer manufacturers implement a set of price retention measures under conditions of sharp changes in the macroeconomic situation.
The FAS technique and the price containment measures are provided for prices for Russian agricultural producers lower than their competitors abroad.
The difference between the export price and the price in the domestic market reaches 20-30%. On the one hand, it allows Russian exporters of agricultural products to effectively compete in global food markets. On the other hand, this means that producers of mineral fertilizers annually indirectly broadcast in the APK billions of rubles of their potential profits and investment resources.
After falling prices for key types of mineral fertilizers by 40% in 2019-2020, today in Russia there is a recuperation trend. Thanks to the FAS and manufacturers, the prices of mineral fertilizers are still lower than in 2015 (!). This is evidenced by the Rosstat data.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia, the share of the value of mineral fertilizers in the weighted average price for wheat in 2019 did not exceed 13.5%. According to ICAR estimates, the share of mineral fertilizers in the weighted average price for wheat at the beginning of 2020 did not exceed 12%. According to the consulting company EY, the costs of mineral fertilizers in the sale of socially significant food products (in particular, bakery products) do not exceed 1-2% (!).
At the meetings held last week in the Government of the Russian Federation, the implemented set of measures was recognized as effective, which follows from the minutes of the meeting, where no instructions for lower decrease in prices were not fixed.
And the rap is considered an existing set of measures to ensure the availability of mineral fertilizers sufficient and exhaustive.
As for the initiative of the specialists of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, according to the Rapy, it can be aimed at creating additional unreasonable benefits for a number of agricultural producers in order to further increase their marginality due to financial losses of mineral fertilizers and actual fixing the non-market mode of cross-subsidization of one industry.
At the same time, it is discriminatory not only in relation to manufacturers of mineral fertilizers, but also to those farmers who have purchased mineral fertilizers in advance, reducing their competitiveness to agricultural producers, for which specialists of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation propose to reduce prices. It is directly contrary to the letter, and the spirit of antitrust laws.
In addition, this initiative reduces all the efforts of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation and the Economic Block of the Government of the Russian Federation to launch a new investment cycle in industry, including in the most investmentary segment of the mineral fertilizer industry.
Inhibition of investment projects can lead to obvious negative consequences for Russian farmers in terms of compressing the range of highly efficient innovative brands of mineral fertilizers necessary for sustainable agricultural development, as well as to affect the implementation of plans to ensure domestic agrarians with mineral fertilizers in the long term, taking into account considerable growth. consumption on their part.
For the past investment cycle 2013-2020. Mineral fertilizers were invested in the development of more than 1.3 trillion rubles. For example, according to the results of 2019, the volume of investments more than 2 times exceeded the average for the manufacturing industry.
The plans of the Ministry of Agriculture are not implemented without increasing the production of mineral fertilizers, taking into account the need to increase non-erroneous non-energy exports by 2024 within the framework of the National Project "International Cooperation and Export". The proportion of the industry in non-engineering non-energy exports in 2020 amounted to 4.3%.
The growth of the APC last year amounted to 5.2%, and the number of unprofitable enterprises decreased to 11%. The overwhelming majority of Russian agricultural producers have the necessary means to acquire mineral fertilizers at market prices. Nevertheless, the experts of the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia are targeted work in order for a row of agrarians to receive mineral fertilizers "at the price required for them."
The idea of a more large-scale subsidization of the agro-industrial complex by compulsively reducing prices for mineral fertilizers, actually means support for one export-oriented industry due to the other, and as already noted, is discriminatory in relation to the manufacturers of mineral fertilizers.
Administrative regulation of the market, forced reduction and fixation of prices for the products of the industry will not accurately not contribute to the activation of investment activities. These initiatives will reduce the rates of innovative development and as a result - risk, in the formation of relevant practice, a significant reduction in the coating of mineral producers to an increase in production facilities and the creation of new jobs.
In addition, fixing prices for commodity and intermediate resources (to which fertilizers include), in contrast to fixing prices for final foods (such as sugar and sunflower oil), can be used in other countries as the basis of trade investigations and administration Barrifying duties on the products of Russian agriculture. "
(Source: RAPU).