Back in the days when I was studying the lost science of Sovietology, every year the Soviet newspapers would boast of record harvests that had overfulfilled the plan, while the reality was much grimmer. Even if the numbers weren't doctored, the sad fact was that a very large part of this grain never made it far past the collective farm. In these days of the extenuated economic crisis and low oil prices, I think we are seeing the return of this kind of official hyperbole and Stakhanovite ambition, as an article we have translated after the jump reports on the curious combination of a "record" grain harvest yet continually higher prices for bread.
In the past, it wasn't hard to see through the ruse on the grain harvests. First, there was always a shortage of hands to harvest it, and college students would be forced to leave their studies to go help the peasants; not that there were any living facilities for them in the middle of the steppe. Second, there was always a shortage of working farm equipment, so some of the grain was never even harvested, and was simply left to rot on the stalk, while what had been harvested would be piled uncovered in the open fields due to a shortage of storage elevators and trucks to transport it to them, and would spoil at the first autumn rain. Finally, much of the grain that did manage to get put on trucks would spill out of holes in the rusty vehicles as they bounced their way along Russia's notoriously horrible roads.
And as if though that weren't enough, in a system where the state
set prices for everything - usually arbitrarily and with no regard for
the consequences - the cost of feed grain in the Soviet Union was
actually considerably higher than that of subsidized bread, so
collective farmers routinely bought bread in the store to feed their
pigs, further reducing the amount available to the populace from those
bumper harvests. Oh, and every year the collective farms received loans
from the state banks for planting and for harvesting, but they never
could repay them, so these "loans" ended up being subsidies in
everything but name.
Well, it looks like nothing much has changed, even nearly two decades after the collapse of the Soviet system. Our Russia correspondent Grigory Pasko has already written extensively about the pitiful roads in the country. Now here's an article from the Forum.msk.ru e-newspaper about the 2008 harvest. Looks like it's déjà vu all over again...
Record harvest of grain: they're feeding food-quality grain to livestock, while bread is getting more expensive
The harvest of grain crops in the RF in the year 2008 comprised approximately 105 million metric tons, which is the best indicator for the past six years. It would seem that such abundance should benefit both peasants and citizens. But, first, the loaf isn't even thinking of getting cheaper. And second, there's simply no place to put the grain, and so the grain doesn't go to waste, they're feeding third-class food-quality grain (5500 rubles per metric ton) to livestock, writes the newspaper "Izvestia".
As one of the Voronezh farmers told the publication, his colleagues can not realize ["sell" in Soviet-speak--Trans.] their gravest of wheat even at a lower price - at approximately 3000 rubles. Less inexpensive varieties of grain, like barley, the peasants are forced to sell for mere kopeks. As a result, deprived of profit, the farmers are experiencing difficulties with the paying out of wages and with the return of credits. A similar situation is observed in other «agrarian» regions of the country as well - Stavropol, Kuban, and Rostov, Volgograd, Samara and other oblasts.
«Here already just about every other one is in bankruptcy. Last year, the price for wheat was good. We started thinking big, picked up all sorts of equipment. On credit, of course, - there's no millionaires among us. Many expanded, additionally leased land - some 100, others 300 hectares. It all cost a pretty penny. We'd hoped that we'd work it off, but it didn't turn out that way. But the banks don't want to wait. The court marshals will be here any moment now», - reported chairwoman of the rayon Association of Peasant Households and Agricultural Cooperatives Olga Moshchenko.
The cause of the problems of the toilers of the village is in part in the notorious financial crisis. Because of the drop in solvency, poor countries can not buy foodstuffs in the necessary volumes. And on top of this, besides Russia, countries of Latin America and Europe have «suffered» from overproduction of grain this year, as the result of which the market is awash with supply, but there is no demand because of the crisis. The Ministry of Agriculture under the leadership of Alexey Gordeyev has promised peasants that the state will help them with the export of grain, true, for now the sales are going at seven-league tempos, because importers are complaining about the absence of money.
Yet another measure for salvation - the conducting of grain interventions. State prices for purchases into the state stock, in principle, are much higher than on the open market and in theory this measure would help peasants to survive. The problem is only in that in total it is planned to purchase 8 million metric tons of grain, while given the overall volumes of the harvest - this is a drop in the ocean. Besides this, agrarians are convinced that in the number of «interventees» may end up only agro-enterprises that are close to officials or under the wardship of the state.
Nevertheless, the majority of farmers consider that the reason for their current state is not so much in the world crisis as in the way things are in Russia. In [sic] the one hand, the power is egging peasants on to the growing of a record harvest, while on the other hand, it turns out not to be ready for it. As a result, in practice it turns out that there is no place to store record harvests, nobody to sell them to, and they simply rot in the hoppers.
However, the saddest thing is that because of the situation that has evolved on the grain market, experts are forecasting by the spring of the year 2009 the bankruptcy of 20% of agrarian enterprises, which will lead to a decline in production and an increase in prices for foodstuffs.
Photo: Head of Russia's Communist Party Gennady Zyuganov (L) examines grain at
an agricultural plant outside Stavropol in Mikhailovskoye on June 6,
2008. Consumers fear is rising in Russia over inflation its effects on
the cost of bread and other basic staples. (AFP Getty Images)
