OREANDA-NEWS  By the end of August, the prices of oranges in Russia increased by 21 percent in monthly terms. Taking into account July, when the price increase was 22.6 percent, in two months the cost of fruit increased by 71 percent, which was a record since the beginning of the century for this time of year. This is reported by RBC with reference to Rosstat data.

The previous comparable monthly increase in the price of oranges was demonstrated in July 2007, but then a rise above 20 percent was observed for only one month. At the same time, the publication notes, historically, oranges are most expensive from August to October, but even in the autumn period such jumps have not been observed before.

Prices for other popular fruits do not react to the orange anomaly in any way. So, bananas have risen in price by 3.6 percent over the month, pears — by 1.5 percent, apples — by 1.3 percent. In the Russian regions, a significant analysis is also noticeable. In three oranges fell in price in August by 0.2-18.8 percent, in 69 they rose by 0.5-30 percent, and in 13 — by 30-74 percent.

The reasons for such dynamics are not reported. In 2021, Egypt was the main supplier of oranges to Russia, accounting for almost half of the volume in monetary terms. Next came South Africa and Turkey, together they were responsible for 90 percent of imports. Since 2022, the publication of foreign trade statistics has been stopped, so it is not known which of the suppliers have raised prices.

Earlier it was reported that by the end of August, world food prices fell to the lowest since March 2021. In comparison with the peak mark of March 2022, the price index of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FFPI) decreased by 38.3 points (24 percent).