OREANDA-NEWS  In 2022, the share of imports in the wholesale turnover of food products (including alcohol and tobacco) increased by 4.1 percentage points to 18.7 percent in monetary terms, household appliances – by 1.7 percentage points, electronics — by 4.8 percentage points, and furniture – by 13.5. This is evidenced by the results of a study of the audit and consulting network FinExpertiza. 

Analysts have noticed that this is happening despite a general reduction in foreign supplies to Russia. In the wholesale trade of household electrical goods (televisions, refrigerators, washing machines), the share of imports increased by an average of 1.7 percentage points to 28.7 percent by 2022.

On the other hand, in some categories of consumer goods, the share of foreign products has decreased. In particular, the share of imports in the pharmaceutical market decreased (by 18 percentage points, to 25.7 percent in total turnover), in the segment of perfumes and cosmetics (by 4.4 percentage points, to 32.7 percent). "With regard to consumer goods, the business quickly established alternative supply channels, used the parallel import mechanism or found new suppliers. Re—export from "friendly countries" played an important role," explained Aghvan Mikaelyan, a member of the FinExpertiza Board of Directors. He pointed out that the share of Chinese manufacturers grew the most.

The largest share of imports in the trade turnover is usually recorded in the border regions that are logically connected with Russia's key foreign trade partners. According to analysts, imports predominate in the food market in the Smolensk Region (72.5 percent), Ryazan Region (59 percent), Kurgan Region (56.3 percent), Magadan Region (50 percent), Bashkortostan and Krasnodar Krai (47.3 percent, respectively). Practically only foreign household appliances are sold by wholesale enterprises of Buryatia (98 percent), Ulyanovsk Region (97.5 percent), Smolensk Region (96.7 percent), Primorsky Krai (94 percent) and Altai Krai (90 percent).