Nuts (Russian market)

History

2023:22% increase in nut sales to 248.1 kt

In 2023, the volume of nut sales in Russia reached 248.1 thousand tons. This is about 22% more than the result for the previous year, when sales were estimated at 203.9 thousand tons. One of the drivers of the industry is the growing popularity of healthy eating, as stated in the BusinesStat review published in early November 2024.

The study considers sales of the following types of products: peanuts, Brazilian nuts, walnuts, pine nuts, cashews, almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts, etc. It is noted that in Russia nuts are increasingly acting as a healthy snack - instead of fast food. Retail chains are actively developing an assortment of organic and dietary food products, expanding the choice of nuts and nut mixtures, increasing the availability of such goods. Among the significant players are Masterfood LLC, Orekhprom JSC, Semushka LLC, Business Partnership LLC, Mok-Production LLC, etc.

In 2019, according to estimates, 207.2 thousand tons of nuts were sold on the Russian market. A year later, sales increased by 0.7% to 208.8 thousand tons. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, implementation was supported by the industrial processing sector while reducing retail sales and supplies to the hotel and restaurant business segment. In 2021, supplies rose by 8.3%, reaching 226.1 thousand tons.

However, in 2022, a decline of 9.8% was recorded due to the worsening geopolitical situation. The volatility of exchange rates, the increase in prices for many goods and services, the decline in real disposable incomes of the population, the increase in unemployment and inflation affected the level of income and led to a decrease in the average consumption of nuts. It is also said that nuts are an expensive product and do not belong to essential goods. Consumers were forced to save on such goods in favor of more necessary products and services.^[1]

2022: Decline in nut imports by 18% to 190.8 thousand tons

In 2022, 190.8 thousand tons of nuts (in terms of core) were delivered to Russia from abroad, which is 18% less than a year ago. This was announced in the analytical company BusinesStat at the end of December 2023.

Imports of nuts to Russia from Brazil (from 100.6 to 63.8 thousand tons), Argentina (from 37.3 to 17.8 thousand tons) and Nicaragua (from 7.5 to 0.8 thousand tons) decreased the most. The rupture of supply chains amid sanctions has led to restrictions on working with individual Latin American nut suppliers. The increase in imports from Azerbaijan, Turkey and Uzbekistan helped to partially compensate for the decrease in supplies, the researchers note.

According to their estimates, peanuts took the largest share in the structure of foreign nut supplies to the Russian Federation in 2022. Peanuts are the cheapest type of nuts and the most widely used in the confectionery industry, which explains its popularity. In 2022, the share of peanuts in nut imports amounted to 70.3%, which corresponded to 134.1 thousand tons. Hazelnuts took 8.7% of imports (16.7 thousand tons), cashew - 7.9% (15.1 thousand tons), walnut - 5.7% (10.9 thousand tons), almonds - 4% (7.6 thousand tons). The remaining types of nuts accounted for 3.4% of imports (6.5 thousand tons) in total.

Analysts also note that in 2022 nuts were also supplied to Russia Estonia (annual volume - 22.2 thousand tons), (Latvia 10.1 thousand tons), (Lithuania 2.9 thousand tons) and (Netherlands 1.7 thousand tons). The countries listed are not major nut producers. Previously, supplies from these countries were insignificant, given the effect of the food embargo (since 2014) on food produced European Union. Nuts Europe produced in Argentina, Brazil, and began to be imported from countries to Russia in 2022. In Philippines Vietnam 2022, China^[2]

Notes