By John Helmer, Moscow It has been obvious for some time that Vladimir Kekhman’s banana financials were so rotten, his Joint Fruit Company (JFC) was republishing its second-quarter financial results as if they were the third quarter figures, postponing the fourth quarter and full-year releases, and refusing response to the question Why? It has also […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow There is no family relationship between the fish and the bacteria; the latter are named after their discoverer, Daniel Elmer Salmon (1850-1914). But how much of a relationship there may be at the moment between salmonella in Norwegian salmon and Russian fish-eating security depends on another creature, the land-based red herring. […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, February 9th, 2012
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Shipments of Norwegian salmon and trout to Russia, the biggest global consumer of Norwegian fish, have been illegally restricted by the Russian government veterinary and phyto-sanitary inspectorate, Rosselkhozdnadzor (RSKN), according to a report by the government’s competition watchdog, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS). The FAS told Fairplay that regulations issued by […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, December 15th, 2011
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow If you could make more money turning bananas into ballet, it’s likely that you couldn’t do it in places where the supply of bananas is plentiful and the price cheap, but the demand for ballet non-existent. But what if in places where the supply of ballet dancers is large and their […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, November 24th, 2011
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Global warming should be so good for Russia that, as long as St. Petersburg can be jacked up by a metre or so, it may pay for the Kremlin to accelerate the melting of the Arctic ice-pack, if it can. But will that be so good for the beverages Russians like […]

by John Helmer - Monday, November 14th, 2011
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Is Vladimir Kekhman going to lose his bananas because the Joint Fruit Company (JFC) he owns, Russia’s banana trade leader, cannot, or will not, pay $16.2 million in commercial damages awarded since August by the UK High Court in London? Kekhman, who doubles as director of the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St. […]

by John Helmer - Friday, November 11th, 2011
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Carbonated water was an 18th century invention in England, associated with the brewing of beer. Fizz came in just over a hundred years later in New Orleans, when carbonated water was added to a cocktail of gin, lemon, lime, egg white and sugar, stirred. After years of trying fizzy drinks from […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow The Russian government has made good on an earlier threat to penalize grain exports if the export tonnage exceeds the level that threatens domestic supplies and triggers grain and bread price increases before the December parliamentary elections. Fear of bread price rises detonating voter discontent first appeared a year ago, when […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, October 12th, 2011
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Joint Fruit Company (JFC), once the owner of Russia’s largest fleet of banana boats and the largest importer of bananas in the Russian market, is slipping on something much bigger than one of its own fruit skins. But the company and its owner, St. Petersburg entrepreneur Vladimir Kekhman, insist everything is […]

by John Helmer - Friday, September 23rd, 2011
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow In case you’ve been missing the action this summer: the Russian wheat harvest is proving to be so abundant, Moscow experts and grain traders are forecasting that exports will reach up to 23.5 million tonnes in the trading season which runs until June 30, next year. Alexander Korbut, spokesman for the […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, September 11th, 2011
No Comments »