Posted on 06/10/2025 5:34:09 AM PDT by marcusmaximus
At a farm near Moscow, newly arrived guest workers from India are planting potatoes and cabbages - work closely monitored by central bank analysts as they prepare for board meetings to set interest rates.
While in developed economies such as the United States food accounts for about 14% of the basket used to calculate inflation, in Russia it makes up a hefty 40% or so, and surging prices for potatoes and other staples have been a major reason for its tight monetary policy.
The central bank trimmed its benchmark rate to 20% on June 6 but even that is around the highest since 2003. More worryingly, people's inflationary expectations - a driver for price pressures - remain high despite actual inflation slowing down.
Potato prices, which have tripled since last year when the crop fell by 12%, are not helping matters.
"It is crazy. Potatoes have always been very cheap. At this price, I will not buy them - I think few people will," said Tamara, a 67-year-old pensioner outside a Pyaterochka discount store in Moscow.
-snip-
The government has responded by boosting imports. Egypt has tripled potato supplies to Russia, while Belarus, Russia's backup potato supplier, said it had run out of stocks.
(Excerpt) Read more at uk.finance.yahoo.com ...
That’s a very stronk replay.
The 144-million population number after the last census (2023)...is faked-up.
I think even before the war started....it was probably around a high 120’s and since the war....with deaths and those who packed-up/left...It’s probably closer to 118-million.
So in terms of farm labor...they are screwed. Over the next 20 years....at least half-a-million non-Russians will be brought in to manage/produce crops.
I understand they are importing them from Armenia...and they are actually Russian potatoes which were brought to Armenia years ago. I believe the shortage is over...
Thanks to President Putin and his stronk response.
Looks like your post is mere speculation on your part with nothing to back it up.
Hey, Russia’s a huge country. Can’t they just plant more potatoes?
Indian-planted potatoes, please. Hold the e-Coli.
We had a bag of potatoes go “bad” so I just planted them. Now we got potatoes coming up all over the place. I just did it for fun - potatoes are pretty cheap. But we have lots of land and plenty of rain, so the only work involved was cutting them up and sticking them in the ground.
And you can even grow them in cardboard boxes, if you have the dirt to fill them with.
Considering a conservative 600k lost men in the past three years, the impact on the population for the next 30 years is going to be significant. It will likely mean between a 2-3% decline in population on top of an already declining growth rate.
Half a million workers is a low-ball estimate of what they will need to just maintain their economy. It’s more likely 3-5X that much over the next 20 years.
When a country that big is that weakened…nothing good will happen. They will lose the east to China. The western part will decay from within. They won’t be able to feed themselves.
It is no wonder they are trying to expand into areas with fertile populations.
Hush foreigner. Go rescue Poland from the fascists in Brussels
When visiting Russia a some years ago I was shocked by the genuinely lower quality and lack of variety in Russian food markets compared to EU Europe. They do import the rotting vegetables/fruit that other people don’t want. The lack of variety of things like sausage in Russia is presumably due to corruption and resultant stagnation of the Russian economy.
Russians are now and always have been just serfs. They don’t know any better.
Putin is the current Czar and the Oligarchs are the curr3nt nobility.
I’m waiting for President Putin liberating me. It’s just a matter of 400 years given his massive and stronk gains.
Same line of lies as with eggs in the US. Same lies, same liars.
The advice I give to you globalists on the left is that you should liberate yourself.
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