Chris Doss The Russia Journal
- -Btw, how is Russian agriculture doing after (partial???) decollectivization. - -One or two years ago, I tried to find data on the results of decollectivization - -In Eastern Europe and Russia and found nothing, except a possible - -deleterious effect in Hungary (which, btw had the most efficient agriculture - -in EE). There were also something from Stratfor from 1999-2000 about - -a crisis in Russian agriculture.
Alexandre Fenelon ----------------------------------------------- You can get detailed stats on this and a host of other economical data in English from the state statistics office Goskomstat at www.gks.ru/scripts/eng/1c.exe?XXXX09R.1.
Attached below is what liberal Russian economist Otto Latsis had to say about contemporary Russian agriculture.
BTW, when I first came to Russia a couple of years ago, I lived six months on an obshchina (basically a commune, but it doesn't have the negative connotations the word "commune" does in English). We had an arrangement with a Moscow agricultural firm to harvest potatoes for them, also hiring workers from the local village (which made us very popular, since the population was hit very hard when the collective farm that used to provide employment got privatized). It was done in the usual Russian way: No industrialization other than moving a combine up and down a field and the use of conveyor belts to move potatoes, and of course the trucks to ship everything up to Moscow. No massive spraying of pesticides either and no use of chemicals. I can tell you from personal experience that the domestically grown produce is an order of magnitude better in terms of taste than food imported from the West. As a matter of fact, the first thing that usually happens to a CIS national visiting the States is get violently ill on the food. The mother of a coworker visited him from the States a few years ago and remarked that the meat actually tasted like the meat she remembered from her childhood.
(Just an anecdote -- the obshchina is located in Kaluga Oblast on the site of one of the most ferocious battles of WWII. They still find skeletons in German or Soviet helmets from time to time in the forest. Whilst harvesting the aforementioned potatoes, what came skittering up across the conveyor belt once but -- an unexploded German grenade! Fortunately, the Algebra teacher had been a demolitions expert in Chechnya.)
Chris Doss The Russia Journal ------------------ This article was published in The Russia Journal ISSUE No.11 (154), DATE: 2002-03-29 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Which legs to stand on without ‘Bush legs?’
By OTTO LATSIS / Special to The Russia Journal The fuss over Russia’s decision to ban U.S. poultry imports is already beginning to die down now, but it is still not clear whether the ban really is all about serious claims on the part of Russian veterinarians against U.S. chicken thighs, or whether this is Russia’s revenge for U.S. quotas restricting imports of Russian steel.
Meanwhile, no one seems to be asking whether Russia can actually get by without "Bush’s legs," as the U.S. chicken thighs were dubbed here back when George Bush Sr. was president. Recently published data on Russian foreign trade and new information on agricultural development in 2001 sheds some light on this question.
The question isn’t just pulled out of thin air – Russian poultry imports exceeded domestic poultry production in 2001, and American chicken accounted for around two-thirds of all imported poultry. Indeed, American chicken accounted for a sixth of total meat consumption.
At the same time, meat imports, including poultry, reached a record high last year. In 1998, domestic meat production was at a similar level to last year, and meat imports totaled 1.437 million tons, including 562,000 tons of poultry. In 2001, however, meat imports almost doubled, reaching 2,203 million tons, including 1.342 tons of poultry – almost double the previous year’s figure.
Aside from a lack of protective measures, two circumstances are likely to have contributed to this American chicken boom. For a start, people’s real incomes rose fast in 2000 and 2001, increasing by more than 15 percent. This gave many families the chance to add more meat to their diet and helped boost demand. Second, the last two years were not so good for Russian grain producers and left little surplus grain with which to produce poultry feed. Domestic poultry production still managed to grow by 20 percent under these conditions, but this paled compared with the sharp increase in imports and poultry importers met with little serious competition on the Russian market.
Today, however, the situation has changed. Last year, the grain harvest was close to record level for the last decade. Even the short period from harvest time to the end of the year was enough to see a sensation emerge – in 2001, Russia became a net exporter of wheat, with exports of 1,683 tons and imports of 915,000 tons.
For Russia a century ago, this wouldn’t have been in the slightest newsworthy, as the country was the world’s biggest grain exporter. But collectivized agriculture as developed by Soviet leaders Joseph Stalin through to Leonid Brezhnev, turned Russia into the world’s largest grain importer, with annual imports of up to 45 million tons. Compared to this, even the most modest grain exports are an undoubted achievement for Russian agriculture today, as it begins to react to signals from the market.
The State Statistics Committee reported that grain sales by agricultural companies rose by more than 26 percent last year. But this growth came from an increased harvest rather from companies reducing their grain reserves, which actually increased by more than sales. The share of grain sold was lower than in 2000, as more than half the grain stayed in reserves. Obviously, part of this grain will be sold later, when prices are higher.
This has created more resources for manufacturing poultry feed. Poultry is quick to raise; it takes only a few weeks to get freshly hatched chickens ready for the pot. So there’s no doubt that if Russia doesn’t manage to come to an agreement with American poultry farmers, Russian farmers will step in quickly enough to fill the gap.
Other changes have also been afoot in Russian villages over the last couple of years that point the way toward a recovery in the agricultural sector and signify that the collective-farming era is coming to an end. The most obvious sign of this trend is an increased interest from investors in agriculture. This interest isn’t to be seen everywhere yet, but in large areas of the black-oil regions, where agriculture is traditionally strong, it is already evident.
The Russian press, including The Russia Journal, has written about the growing interest of the Russian business in buying up thousands of hectares of farmland in the Belgorod, Tambov and Voronezh regions. This will be a real boost to agriculture, which previously was still feeling the consequences of the crisis. In any case, the suppliers of "Bush’s legs" can expect some serious competition now.