Bashkiria can substitute imported products in stores for 150 billion rubles a year

The substitution volume of imported food with local products is estimated in Bashkortostan at about 150 billion rubles a year. Such data were announced by the Minister of Trade and Services of Bashkortostan Alexey Gusev at the International Business Week 2020 in Ufa.

"Our region has a huge agricultural potential, but not always the products we produce appear on our shelves," Alexey Gusev noted. "The situation is such that adding up the volume of production and import of a product, we will see a figure higher than the level of its consumption. This difference suggests that our product was exported from the republic, modified, packaged, and brought back. That is, all the added value remained outside the region."

The expert added that the problem should be resolved by establishing interaction between manufacturers, processors, logisticians, and retail chains.

"Pricing, quality, brand recognition are important for chains, and the main problem here is the lack of quality services in Bashkortostan for the provision of warehouse, transport and packaging logistics," Alexey Gusev says. "We understand perfectly well that small manufacturers will not be able to get into retail chains since they are unable to provide either the declared level of pre-sale preparation or the required volume. The idea of ​​creating an agri-food cluster in Bashkortostan was born to unite these chains. This institute will bring together all participants: manufacturers, processors, logisticians, sales managers. Its work will make it possible to replace products coming from outside today with those that are produced in our region. In financial terms, we estimate the annual volume of import substitution at about 150 billion rubles."