UFAS Advisory Council has considered competition development issues in the market of grain storage and shipment

Competition development in the market of grain storage and shipment services became a topic of the next meeting of Advisory Council on competition development in the sphere of retail trade at the Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (UFAS) on Bashkortostan Republic.

According to UFAS experts, the current situation in the market of grain storage and shipment brings to naught efficiency of grain interventions as grain elevators, using their dominating position, overestimate cost of shipment services.

Elevators, from their part, are compelled to survive in the conditions of low loading of their production capacities.

“We have 37 elevators, cereal products integrated plants, grain reception centres operating all over the territory of Bashkortostan Republic. More than 40 if we take into account non-operational ones,” the vice-chairman of the State Committee RB on Trade and Consumer Protection Valery Belov said. “Total capacity of single storage at all 37 elevators makes 2 million 100 thousand tons. This year there was total 70 thousand tons of grain at the elevators before the harvesting beginning.”

In such situation elevators do not have means for modern equipment acquisition and competitiveness maintenance. According to the representative of LLC «Ilishevsky Elevator» Faima Idrisova, with the Russia's joining the World Trade Organization elevators face with a re-equipment problem.

Participants of the market noted also dissociation of grain keepers, absence of a supervising body which would undertake coordination and information support.

Experts have comprehensively discussed the problem and have developed a number of recommendations.