Bread and bakery products keep growing increasingly expensive in Sverdlovsk Region: Yekaterinburg’s bread-making plant reported white bread was to go up by 4% and would be sold for 20.55 RUR per kilogram. Bread made of mixed flour would grow 5% more expensive and would be available for 19.73 RUR per kilogram (compared with the earlier price of 18.8 RUR). The bakery plants located in the region’s other towns followed suit.

The bread-makers claim the price increase is brought about by greater production costs. At the same time, the increase must also have to do with the lifting of the wheat and barley export duties on July 1, 2008.

The duties were imposed on November 12, 2007 and were raised by the Russian Government from 10% to 40% in January 2008, thus bringing the price of a ton of crops to at least ?105. The authorities expected this measure to stabilize the domestic market shattered by the soaring crop and bread prices.

In the meanwhile, prices kept growing even before the duties were cancelled. White bread, flour, and pasta, for instance, became 6% to 7.7% more expensive in April 2008 and 2.5% to 5.2% costlier in May 2008. On July 8-14, 2008, the average price of white bread in Russia went up by .4% to .6%, Rosstat reports.