Russia increased butter imports 9% in 2024 - watchdog

MOSCOW. Oct 24 (Interfax) - Russia has imported 110,200 tonnes of butter in 2024 as of October 22, up 9% year-on-year, the Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) told Interfax, citing information from the Federal State Information System for Veterinary Medicine.

Belarus is the main supplier of butter, shipping 89,000 tonnes since the start of the year.

As reported, Rosstat has recently been recording a significant increase in butter prices. They rose 5.1% in September, the highest rate of growth on the dairy market. Prices rose 21.5% between the start of the year and October 21 and 1.6% in the week October 15-21, speeding up from the 1.4% seen in the preceding week.

The situation has attracted considerable attention from the authorities. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev held a meeting at which relevant government agencies were assigned a number of tasks which aim to stabilize prices for butter.

The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has sent inquiries to major butter producers and demanded information from them about each planned increase in wholesale prices until the end of 2024. Based on this data, the service is analyzing the basis for the increase in wholesale prices. In addition, FAS regional departments will work on concluding price agreements for a number of products, in particular for reducing or fixing prices for butter, bread and milk.

According to Rosstat data, production of butter in Russia was 248,000 tonnes in 9M, down 1.8% year-on-year. Production in September was down 2.7% YoY and down 3.7% MoM.