So in earlier articles, I talked about how Russian President Vladimir Putin, has totally destroyed the Russian economy and that massive chaos would follow, well right now, we’re seeing the early signs of this playing out. Because not only are many stores running out of essential everyday products, almost everything, from groceries to iPhones to machine parts is getting extremely expensive to the point that the average Russian citizen can no longer afford them which is having a massive impact on the quality of life.
Now with that said let’s take a look at the current prices in Russian supermarkets and retail stores to see just how bad things have gotten. First up are the classic breakfast items such as eggs, milk, cottage cheese, and bread. Here we see that milk takes the lead, by increasing by about 45%, followed by eggs and cottage cheese, with increases of about 30%. Bread prices seem to be somehow stable in most markets, which is abnormal, since global wheat futures prices have absolutely exploded, increasing the demand for Russian farmers' wheat.
However, the Russian government was very keen on preventing farmers from exporting wheat to other countries for higher prices, to prevent domestic bread prices to increase. So for now it seems to have worked for bread, however, it did not work for other domestic products, but we’ll get to those in a sec. Then we move on to apples and tomatoes, which are up 35% and 30% respectively, which is again, a considerable increase in such a short amount of time, considering that the salaries have not gone up. However, these increases are child play, compared to the next items on the list, which are the vegetables.
Because carrots are up 100% on average and yes this goes for the lowest quality of carrots as well, just like with the lowest quality of potatoes, that are up 200% which is crazy, considering that the potato, is not only a staple in the Russian diet, but it’s also a domestic product. So unlike bread, the potato did not avoid the huge price increases, that the Russian government tried to avoid. Which brings us to the biggest price hike so far and that involves, the onion. Which is also a staple in Russian cuisine and they are up almost 250%.
As you can see, these are not luxury items that made for rich but simply everyday products (like milk, flour, sugar, egg) that most Russians buy, especially when you can’t afford meat or fish and unfortunately, it’s exactly these products that have seen massive increases in price. Now with vegetables increasing so rapidly, it’s almost impossible for this not to become a complete catastrophe and most likely, many families will go hungry in the coming months.
Some other products that have greatly increased in price, are sugar, which is up around 150%, and in addition to the major price hike, it’s also becoming very scarce since many people are hoarding sugar just like, flour and buckwheat. When it comes to consumer electronics, TVs have gone up with about 60% and cameras around 100% even though most of these brands will simply run out due to the sanctions. Just like iPhones, which are up around 50%, and drones that are up, a massive 200%.
One more interesting item that has seen a major price hike is vodka. Again, you would think that, because it’s a domestic product, there wouldn’t be much of a reason for a major price hike, however, several vodka’s brands, have seen price increases of around 70%. So overall, things are already pretty bad and these price increases are more than enough to put the average Russian into serious trouble, however, the full effects are not even here yet, since many products are shipped and stored for months, which means that the new batches still have to arrive and when they do, they will be even more expensive, than what’s currently in stores.
just a small portion of companies that left russian market after invasion of ukraine, tech4gamers
In addition to this, several foreign companies, that have exited Russia are still paying their Russian employees, which raises the question, for how long can they keep doing this, since they are not generating any income from the Russian market. What kind of problems could the dismissal of these people cause in the Russian economy? Let that be the subject of another article. This was, “The exploding prices in Russia”.
