Near at hand, eggs’ quotes are going to be considered as a usual practice on exchanges. Amid the program on lowering a user value of this foodstuff category, it was decided to sell eggs on a commodity exchange. Evgeny Serdyukov, St Petersburg Mercantile Exchange’s director expects such contracts to be launched next year. Indeed, world commodity exchanges have been actively trading in wheat, soybeans, corn, and cotton; however, trading in the agricultural produce on exchanges has been still in progress in Russia. Serdyukov explains that both producers and consumers face a problem that prices on virtually all consumer goods are hardly predictable. Even experienced analysts are not able to determine reliable price targets and to insure market insiders from abrupt price hikes in Russia’s severe business environment. Economists believe that such forecasts do not shield private consumers from planned price increase. “This might be an interesting experiment. In the meantime, futures on the grain market are exerting a modest influence on prices,” Alexander Abramov, professor of the stock and investment market faculty of the Higher Economics School says. At the same time, he agrees that a considerable eggs price adjustment is hardly to be expected. However, numerous economists believe that the foodstuff market should be developed, but it is better to start with sugar and fodder futures. It should be reminded that recently the Federal antitrust authorities turned attention to the problem of an eggs prices surge. Russia’s statistical agency reported on the artificial price hike by 19% starting this year; in the Kaliningrad region eggs prices rocketed by 30%. The agency assumes that prices have been rising due to increasing feed stuff for hens, seasonal price adjustment, and a retail margin. The antitrust authorities also leave open the possibility of a producers’ collusion in setting prices of eggs.
