UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 18, 2016. Sverdlovsk Region-based customers tend to buy increasingly more cut loaves and small loaves of bread (250 to 300 grams), Kommersant refers to Uralsky Khleb Corporation’s Director-General Denis Malyshev as stating.

‘Bread consumption is an economic indicator directly related to the level of well-being,’ Malyshev said. He explained a decrease in sales pointed to improving living standards and an increase in sales pointed to shrinking incomes.

‘Bread sales have been going down by 1.5% to 2% in the last five years, yet there is a small trend towards somewhat greater bread consumption right now,’ he said.

Malyshev said there were over thirty bread factories in Sverdlovsk Region at the moment, as well as around two hundred private bakeries. These manufacturers are responsible for nearly 90% of the local market’s sales.