OREANDA-NEWS. September 22, 2014. After a joint meeting of the Headquarters for Joint Investigations of Violations of the Antimonopoly Law of the CIS Member-States and the International Working Group on studying competition problems in the pharmaceutical sector, the Headquarters held a separate meeting to consider issues of drafting a report on grain and the results of monitoring prices for food products.

Attendees included competition authorities of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Egypt and several international organizations – CIS Executive Committee, the Interstate Council on Antimonopoly Policy (ICAP), the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) and UN Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in the person of the Head of UNCTAD Competition and Consumer Policies Branch, Hassan Qaqaya.

Grain production is the core of the agro-industrial complex, one of the most important exports and an irreplaceable raw material for many sectors of the economy. In view of its significance, a decision was made for the Headquarters for Joint Investigations to carry out market analysis.

At the beginning of the meeting, the Head of FAS Department for Control over Chemical Industry and Agro-Industrial Complex, Anna Mirochinenko, reported that the necessary methodological base for analyzing the market of services for grain storage and warehousing, services for grain transshipment in sea and river ports, grain market and reviewing the market of grain transportation services was prepared and approved. Competition authorities of the CIS member-states are analyzing the relevant markets. FAS already reported on the findings of analyzing the market of grain storage and warehousing services in 2011-2012.

In 5 years (2009 - 2013) majority of the CIS countries showed positive trends in agricultural production, facilitated by favorable climatic conditions for vegetation and plant growth. For example, agricultural production in 2013 in the CIS increased by 7.2% in comparison with 2012. In 2012 production decreased by 3.2%.

Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine are traditional leaders in grain production in the CIS. Their share exceeds 80 % of the total grain production in the CIS. In Russia, for instance, record high harvesting was in 2008 (108.2 million tons), in Ukraine and Kazakhstan – in 2011 (56.7 and 27 million tons accordingly).

The work on the Report continues. Information on the findings of analyzing the CIS markets will be collected till the end of 2104.

Participants also discussed the results of monitoring prices for food products in the CIS from 1st February to 2nd April 2014.

“Price reduction across the entire spectrum of monitored products was observed in Kazakhstan. Armenia also demonstrated reduction of prices, albeit insignificant. In Kyrgyzstan, on the contrary, wholesale as well as retail prices for nearly all products (except milk and buckwheat) went up. The upward trend in Moldova also was typical for most of products”, said Anna Mirochinenko. “In Russia prices decreased for wheat flour, sunflower oil, “Extra” table salt and buckwheat, but increased for all other products.”

According to the monitoring participants, however, in the countries where prices increased, their level did not exceed the official inflation.

The mark-up level typically did not exceed 20 %. The lowest mark-up for most of products was observed in Armenia, the highest – in Russia (except buckwheat, butter, milk and sugar).

“Overall as our analysis showed, pricing trends for the socially-important food products have different vectors depending on the countries and products, which demonstrates the specifics of the national markets of socially-important food products, prices for which are formed mainly upon an impact of domestic factors”, pointed Anna Mirochinenko.