Hiking railway tariffs push seafood prices to consumer resistance limit

Products made from the fishfish and other aquatic species originating from the Russian Far East have continued appreciating in Moscow. The price rise which has been caused by a double increase of the railway tariffs for seafood shipments from Vladivostok to Moscow in July-August has already amounted to at least 17-20% with cheap fish such as Alaska pollock, pink salmon and squid displaying the highest growth figures, according to RBC.

The seafood price rise in Moscow has already made the Capital's Food Resources Department ask the Federal Antimonopoly Service not to tolerate ungrounded price growth for seafood delivered to Moscow for human consumption.

Since the start of the current year 2007 the railway tariffs for shipments of frozen finfish and other aquatic products on the way from Vladivostok to Moscow have reportedly grown more than twice. The railway tariffs for transportation of 180 tonnes (one refrigerated railcar section) were increased from RUB750,000 to RUB950,000 in July 2007, RUB1.16 million in August 2007 and RUB1.88 million in September 2007. Such figures have been provided by Nikolay Gluschuk, general director of OAO Rybmarket (plc), one of Moscow's largest wholesalers, in his letter to Gleb Yakunin, President of RAO Russian Railways, and Alexander Baburin, Minister of Food Resources Department of Moscow Government.

According to the Department, with the purchasing price of RUB26.25 per kilo of Alaska pollock its price in Moscow has come up to RUB35.30 per kilo as per 19 October 2007 while pink salmon selling at RUB29.71 per kilo in Vladivostok has appreciated to RUB41.00 per kilo in Moscow. In the meantime, the consumer resistance price limit is estimated at RUB63.00 per kilo of Alaska pollock and RUB65.00 per kilo of pink salmon. Otherwise, they lose the price battle with their imported analogues. The officials say that the resulting seafood supply from the Russian Far East in Moscow's food stores will lead to a general growth of fish prices by 10% at least.