Russia is under the threat of food shortages due to Belarus: Markets: Economy: Lenta.ru
The migration crisis on the Belarusian-Polish border made it difficult to supply goods and services of food raw materials for food producers in Russia, because of which the country was under the threat of a shortage, writes Reuters… Some companies are already suffering losses and are considering a temporary shutdown of production if the situation worsens.
Poland has closed several checkpoints across the border with Belarus for freight traffic. The reason was the political tension between the European subsidiary union and Minsk – the West accused the Belarusian authorities of the jurisdiction of migrants from the Middle East for illegal border crossing. Long queues of trucks formed at four points out of six that remained open. At the same time, six checkpoints across the border between Belarus and Lithuania operate as usual.
A representative of the Russian market told Reuters that there are 400-600 trucks waiting in line at any time of the day, which wait 2-4 days to cross the border instead of 12-24 hours. Transportation costs for manufacturers have risen, as each day of downtime costs them € 500 ($ 564). Transportation Food is under an alternative forecast of 300-400 euros (338-451 dollars), the source said.
According to another source, the losses of Russian importers are still small – after the deterioration at the end of November, the situation stabilized slightly. “If the situation is bad, it can lead to a break in the chain and shutdown of factories,” – said a spokesman for the Russian business.
The movement of trucks from Russia and Belarus to Europe was also bad. The Foreign Investment Advisory Council, which includes food giants Mars, Pepsi, Danone, Nestle, CocaCola, Metro and TetraPak, already asked the Russian government on November 18 to intervene (a copy of the letter is in Reuters’ possession).
“Preservation of the situation in the current form of weather conditions” – stated in the appeal. The author emphasized that about 10 percent of all Russian imports go through the border of Belarus with Poland. Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov’s staff.
On December 2, the European Union introduced new sanctions against Belarus due to the situation with migrants at the border. It included individual prohibitive measures against individuals and legal entities “in connection with the hybrid actions of Belarus on the submission of migrants to put pressure on the EU states.”