Food producers warn St. Petersburg stores of delivery delays amid Russia’s fuel crisis

Food producers across Russia have begun warning grocery chains of possible delivery delays caused by the fuel crisis, the St. Petersburg-based news outlet Fontanka reported, citing two participants in St. Petersburg’s retail market.

A letter from a producer in the Ulyanovsk region said regional authorities last week restricted gasoline and diesel sales to trucks. “Due to force majeure, vehicles carrying our products may be delayed in transit,” the letter said. Reports of delays are also coming in from the Volga region and the Southern Federal District.

Alexander Myshinsky, head of the Real group of companies, which manages a chain of grocery supermarkets in St. Petersburg, said out-of-town suppliers are warning of delivery delays — though the situation is not yet critical and all orders are arriving, if “a little behind schedule.”

The Association of Omnichannel Retail Companies (AKORT), which brings together the country’s largest retail chains, said logistics remain stable and stores are “adapting their processes to current conditions.”

Experts interviewed by Fontanka said the range of goods available in stores would not shrink, since both producers and retail chains have existing stockpiles.

The fuel crisis triggered by Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries has now spread to nearly every region of the country. In many regions, authorities have imposed restrictions on gasoline and diesel sales; elsewhere, fuel stations have introduced their own limits.

As gasoline shortages and long lines at filling stations worsen, Russian trucking companies have begun warning customers that freight rates will rise by at least 10 percent, the newspaper Kommersant reported. Industry sources told the paper that many carriers are reluctant to take on long-haul routes because of uncertainty over fuel availability and instead prefer jobs no more than 100–150 kilometers (60–90 miles) away.