World meat industry news

In April, heavy vehicles from Russia and Belarus were banned from transporting to the EU, including in transit. Businesses are looking for alternative ways to work legally. The most popular is getting Kazakhstan numbers. However, this leads to the displacement of local entrepreneurs from the market. Another scheme was proposed in the Ministry of Transport of Belarus: the tractor is changed at the border, and the trailer continues to move to its destination.

“Those sanctions that were imposed on Russia today have practically broken all the logistics in our country. And we are forced to look for new logistics corridors,” admitted Transport Minister Vitaly Savelyev.

Part of the cargo has already been redirected to seaports, others are sent by rail. But it is not so easy to fully restore supplies. Road transportation accounts for a significant share of imported goods: food, clothing, furniture.

While business is establishing transport chains, the authorities are thinking about how to respond to EU actions. Among the options is to adopt the experience of Belarus, where they introduced a scheme of transfers and overloads.

The method is controversial. Truckers have already been queuing at the border for weeks. In addition, additional costs were reflected in the final cost of the goods. But there is also a positive effect - it has become more difficult to force Belarusian companies out of the market.

The opinions of Russian entrepreneurs were divided. The head of the Association of International Road Carriers (ASMAP), Andrey Kurshin, points out that the additional costs of transferring do not exceed 50 euros, while the cost of reloading goods from one vehicle to another can reach 350 euros. However, extra expenses are better than losing your job altogether.

If you follow the path of Belarus, then imported goods will either disappear from the market, or their cost will increase significantly, opponents of the initiative say. In their opinion, "any restrictions are fraught with negative consequences for the Russian market of food and agricultural products."

And here is what the truckers themselves write on social networks: “For the second month we have been arriving on Finnish numbers and every time there is something new at the customs. There is a work".

The appeal of the Association of International Road Carriers to the government states that the restrictions imposed by the EU have vacated the market niche for the delivery of Russian goods and now it is actively occupied by foreign road transport companies.

The lack of competition from Russian entrepreneurs led to an increase in tariffs. For example, if at the beginning of the year the average price for cargo transportation from Germany to the central regions of Russia did not exceed 3,200 euros, now it has grown to 15,000. The same is true in the opposite direction. Delivery of goods to the EU countries will cost six to ten thousand instead of the previous two.

In order to continue working and circumvent European restrictions, Russian businessmen will re-register trucks in Kazakhstan and cross the borders of the European Union with new numbers without hindrance.

However, not everyone can afford relocation, and the neighbors are not very happy with the guests. Local entrepreneurs have already felt the lack of "permits" - permits issued by the Ministry of Transport. The media report that the quotas intended for Kazakhstanis are received by Russians, and not always legally.

Nevertheless, the method is completely legal, although not ideal. "Large Russian and Belarusian road carriers that have transferred their activities to Kazakhstan create competition and squeeze our enterprises out of the market, thereby reducing the income of local companies and the population, since their heavy trucks are mainly used by citizens of Russia and Belarus," Majilis deputy Maksat Ramankulov said.

To solve the problem, he proposes to develop regulatory measures for foreign companies operating in the service sector on the territory of the republic, at least for the duration of the sanctions.

However, so far the authorities are only softening the legislation for Russians and Belarusians. In Kazakhstan, there was a rule prohibiting the import into the country of cargo that was attached in a third country. Unscrupulous entrepreneurs were threatened with a fine of up to 230 thousand rubles. But for Russians and Belarusians, this rule was canceled.

“Supply chains are transforming. The search for new routes is constantly going on. An example is the active growth of transportation through Turkey and Iran. Some of the historical road routes are completely or partially replaced by rail and sea transport,” says Sergey Levchenko, Director of Transport Logistics at Tablogix.

Through trial and error, he continues, as the market self-regulates as it encounters new complexities and limitations, it tries to find the simplest and most stable routes.

Levchenko notes that the main difficulty in trucking between Russia and Europe is the decrease in the volume of cargo due to sanctions. In addition, restrictions were imposed on customs codes without specifying the goods, which led to a double interpretation of the bans and long queues at the borders.

Russian retail chains already feel the problem of importing perishable products. Igor Karavaev, Chairman of the Presidium of the Association of Retail Companies, emphasizes: "The procedure for picking up in Belarus can take more than a week, which is critical, for example, for vegetables and fruits."

According to him, if a similar mechanism is adopted in Russia, this will lead to an additional increase in transportation tariffs by 30 percent. And in the end, to rising prices or the disappearance of part of the imports.

“The main share of goods in the foreign food traffic is vegetables and fruits from the southern countries and the Balkans. For example, apples are actively transported to Russia before the season, as the domestic supply does not fully satisfy consumer demand,” Karavaev explains.

Experts are sure that now it is extremely important to avoid any tightening of measures in relation to food imports. Gross interference will further increase the cost of logistics and reduce the availability of certain goods. If you do not put a spoke in the wheel, business will eventually find ways to return a significant part of imports to the Russian market.