The president of the “Greenhouses of Russia” association, Alexei Sitnikov, predicted in an interview with TASS that flower prices in Russia could rise by 40 percent by March 8.
According to him, there is a shortage of imported flowers, since there are problems on the border with Belarus, and imports are now very expensive. “Russian producers are not able to cover this deficit, which, accordingly, will entail an increase in prices,” he said.
Sitnikov added that traditionally by March 8, flowers will rise in price by 20 percent, and this year, due to difficulties, prices will increase by another 15-20 percent.
Earlier, the Federal Customs Service (FCS) said that reports that there was a shortage of flowers in Russia before the spring holidays is not true. Information about delays at customs was denied. The FCS added that customs clearance of goods is now proceeding smoothly, despite the increase in volumes.
Goods go mainly through Belarus, which became the main supplier of flowers to Russia in 2018, it accounts for 49.5 percent of production, in most cases this is re-export from other countries, mainly from the Netherlands. There is no VAT on the import of flowers in Belarus, so it is profitable to supply them to Russia through the republic.