Potato Shaming For Two
- 28.05.2025, 10:53
Putin, following Lukashenko, learned about the shortage of potatoes.
Putin laughed at the problems with potatoes in Belarus. It turned out that on the same day he learned about the problems with potatoes in Russia. These problems have been talked about for more than half a year - and back in April it was written that Russia had run out of its own potatoes, writes the website of the TV channel "Belsat".
Vladimir Putin learned on May 26 from the deputy head of his administration Maksim Oreshkin that Belarus had "run out of potatoes." A video of the meeting with businessmen was reported by RIA Novosti. Putin said with a smile that Russia could buy potatoes from Belarus because "they are big potato specialists there." Oreshkin told him that "they have run out of potatoes there" and Alexander Lukashenko is holding a meeting on the subject. Putin laughed: "Belarus has run out of potatoes, what is that?"
A day later, it was reported that at the same meeting, Putin acknowledged problems with potatoes in Russia itself. He also noted problems with other vegetables and sugar beets.
Putin said that a day earlier "he had met with representatives of various businesses, including the agribusiness sector. We don't have enough potatoes, it turns out." Putin added that he had spoken with Lukashenko and heard from the latter that "everything from Belarus has been sold to Russia." It is not known when this conversation took place.
Potatoes in Belarus have not run out, but have become "golden"
Potatoes in Belarus have not actually run out, as Putin says, but a "potato crisis" has indeed been observed since the beginning of spring. There were days when potatoes disappeared from sale. Then it came back, but at prices many times higher than a year ago. In Warsaw and Vilnius, potatoes became cheaper than in Minsk. Now the usual Belarusian price of 1 kg of washed potatoes is more than four rubles, while a year ago they were sold for less than two rubles. And a year ago you could buy unwashed potatoes for a ruble, now you still have to look for unwashed ones.
And when potatoes appeared, onions disappeared. Then Belarusians began to pay attention to the problems with cabbage, apples and other fruits and vegetables, to the soaring prices for cherries and Belarusian strawberries.... There was a cucumber and tomato collapse.
The propaganda in Belarus was indignant: "All they want to do is eat". Representatives of the authorities complained first about suppliers of vegetables from storage facilities, then about the climate. The climate is really bad, and independent economists saw the root cause as price regulation, which discouraged the desire to grow unprofitable crops. Among the reasons they also named sanctions, because of which Belarusians cannot buy European seed potatoes - Belarusian potatoes cannot stay in storage for a long time and simply rot.
Russia is not better
Potatoes in Russia have doubled in price in 2024, wrote "Important Stories" in December. And back in September, Russians were warned that they could go without potatoes in the winter, and in November, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Patrushev instructed to import potatoes from "friendly" countries.
Prices in Russia were not regulated - and they soared, just as they soared in Belarus after "unfreezing." It was suggested to regulate them when it was too late. In April, the average price of one kilogram of potatoes in Russia, as calculated by the St. Petersburg "Fontanka", was 76.12 Russian rubles - about one dollar or 2.81 Belarusian rubles, and in Chukotka it reached almost 200 Russian rubles or 7.3 Belarusian rubles. This was explained by the fact that Russia had "run out of its own potatoes, while imported potatoes come at exorbitant prices."
Russia has significantly increased the supply of potatoes from China, Egypt and even Pakistan - probably, a lot of potatoes were brought from Belarus, where prices were still "frozen" at that time. But in May, despite the increase in potato imports, both Kazan and Yakutia complained about potato prices. On May 23, a tariff exemption was increased for potato imports to Russia, and on May 27, an embargo on potato exports was imposed in the Kaliningrad Oblast.
A chain of events was cited as the reasons for this: overproduction and, as a consequence, a low price for potatoes in 2023, because of this and because of rising costs - smaller potato crops for the next year, even smaller harvests due to the climate, and the simultaneous reorientation of Egyptian potato suppliers to the European market. And the root cause was seen as a systemic crisis in the agro-industrial complex: rising prices for fertilizers, machinery, fuel, and labor. There was also a shortage of seed material: like Belarus, Russia cannot buy it from Europe because of sanctions, and its own breeding is not so good.
So Putin only heard about the potato crisis that had been developing since last fall at the end of May. And he should have been interested in potatoes: they are a favorite dish of Russians. Although potato consumption in Russia is gradually declining, the average Russian eats about 86.8 kilograms of potatoes in 2022, according to UN estimates. That's more than 82.74 kg of potatoes per year per Irishman - and the Irish consider themselves big potato eaters. Belarusians ate 160.5 kg that year (first place in the world), Ukrainians 139.2 kg, Kazakhs 104.9 kg, Poles 93.8 kg and Lithuanians 55.6 kg. According to Rosstat, the most potatoes in Russia are consumed by residents of Chuvashia, the least in Khabarovsk Krai, Chukotka and Moscow.