Images of "war" in Russia's super markets for a packet of sugar. The snapshots that have been making the rounds on the internet in recent days are indicative of the situation in the country as the war in Ukraine rages on for the 22nd day.
Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) announced today that it will conduct inspections of large sugar producers to prevent the creation of cartels due to sharp price increases and "unjustified" shortages in some regions due to high demand.
The videos mostly depict pensioners arguing with each other over who will... grab more bags of sugar.
Many Russians see sugar, along with other staples such as buckwheat and salt, as a useful product for storage in times of crisis. So they rushed to buy supplies after Western sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine weakened the ruble and drove up food prices.
"My mother-in-law was in the store yesterday and there was no sugar left and she couldn't find it in other stores," said Oleg a construction worker from Vladimir speaking to Reuter's. "People are worried," he added."
Annual inflation in Russia reached its highest level since late 2015 on March 11 while sugar prices jumped 12.8 percent last week, according to data released by the statistics agency Rosstat on Wednesday.
At the same time, authorities are warning that there is no need to rush to buy food products.
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"The absence of sugar on store shelves in several regions is due to a sharp increase in demand fueled by fraudulent organizations," FAS said.
Russia has banned sugar exports until August 31 and has proposed importing 300.000 tonnes of sugar and raw sugar duty-free as part of measures it hopes will cushion domestic inflation.
"We have no problems with sugar, our producers are producing it in sufficient quantities," Viktor Evtukhov, deputy industry and trade minister, said on Thursday.
"Given the decision taken to ban exports and free import of this product, we really do not expect shortages of this commodity, which is in very high demand by the population today."
Finally, according to Reuter's citing the consulting firm IKAR two ships carrying 88.000 tonnes of raw sugar are en route from Brazil to the Black Sea port.
Source.gr
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