It seems the procedures for importing fresh apples from a number of countries to Russia have become much more complicated this week. A letter has went out from the Rosselkhoznadzor, which prescribes to carefully check each batch of apples from these countries for exceeding the maximum permissible concentration (MPC) of residues of pesticide substances, including such as Pyrimethanil, Chlorpyrifos and Hexachlorobenzene. This has led to transport delays. Accordingly, suppliers incur significant losses and believe that these measures are a form of nontariff barriers to imports in order to support the domestic producer against the background of an excess of apples.
Considering the delays in deliveries, the Russian apple market picked up a little. True, the prices for apples on the spot market have not yet risen, but already in deliveries for the next week, Russian supermarket chains take this factor into account and raise the ceiling of the purchase price even for an inexpensive apple. According to market participants, prices are also supported by the lack of re-exports of Polish apples to the Russian market through Belarus.