Exclusive
Tuna instead of meat, bread instead of potatoes
How the Russian table has changed and why there are fewer quality products on it
This text was created by the "Point Media" team and published on Explainer — our team's new website.
How the Russian table has changed and why there are fewer quality products on it
“MO” studied studies of the Russian food market, statements by heads of retail chains and talked to ordinary Russians to understand how their food basket has changed during the war with Ukraine. It turned out that the changes are dramatic, and mostly not for the better.
According to Rosstat, inflation in Russia at the end of 2022 amounted to 11.94%, 2023 - 7.42%, and 2024 - 9.52%. It is by these values, for example, pensions in the country are indexed. In fact, as businessman Dmitry Potapenko and economist Vladislav Zhukovsky tell “MO”, consumer prices in Russia are rising by 20-30% a year, and people have long been used to it. This is confirmed by the Russians interviewed by the editorial board. According to their feelings, during the almost 3.5 years of the war, prices in stores for various goods have jumped by 50-200% (1.5-3 times). At the same time, people complain about the deterioration in the quality of products.
Even in the pro-Kremlin Komsomolskaya Pravda, Dmitry Yanin, chairman of the board of the Confederation of Consumer Societies, says that producers are using various tricks to keep prices down: they reduce the volume of containers, and replace expensive proteins and fats with cheaper ones (for example, animal proteins with vegetable ones, such as palm oil and soy. Pork and beef in sausages are easily replaced by chicken, and by-products, including shredded skin and bones, are added).
With the outbreak of war in Ukraine due to the rapid rise in prices for all goods in Russia, retail chains started to develop hard discounters - to open such super-cheap stores with a narrow assortment as “Yes!”, “Pobeda”, ‘Mayak’ and “Yarche!” and “Chizhik”. The latter from X5 Retail Group had 1,500 in the country only a year ago, and by 2026 they want to increase their number to 5,000. And about 70% of their assortment are goods of the chain's own trademarks. That is, they are mostly cheap food products.
According to market analysts from the company Infoline, the combined share of such discounters in 2024 reached 5.61% of the total volume of retail sales of food products - this is almost three times more than in 2018, when the format began to gain momentum in the Russian market.
At the same time, conventional retail chains are also replacing expensive goods with cheaper ones. For example, back in the fall of 2022, it became known that Lenta was adding new budget juices and nectars of its own brand or little-known brands to the shelves so that consumers could buy them for 60-80 rubles per box against the price of 150-200 rubles per pack. At the same time, budget analogs even then were characterized by unnaturalness, their main composition - water and concentrates.
And sales of cheap goods are growing. According to a study by the Center for Development of the Higher School of Economics, in the first quarter of 2025, sales of bread (plus 6%), pasta (plus 5%) and cereals (plus 3%) increased in Russia. This could be, among other things, the result of the rise in the price of potatoes - in May alone, they increased in price almost three times over the year. Therefore, its sales decreased by 8%. Thus, the vegetable was partially replaced by bread, pasta and cereals.
Purchases of some expensive goods are decreasing. According to the analytical platform “Chek Index” on June 16, red caviar costs 21% more than a year ago, and the number of purchases only for the year fell by 13%. At the same time, imitated red caviar rose in price by 14%, but the number of its purchases increased by 9%. In other words, Russians in this segment are again switching to lower quality and cheaper products. This is confirmed by the residents of Moscow, St. Petersburg and Chelyabinsk interviewed by MO.
Meat. Katerina, 23, from Lyuberets (income for her family of two is 230 thousand rubles) and Andrei, 34, from Mytishchi (income for a family of three is 300 thousand rubles) in a conversation with “MO” noted that they have reduced their consumption of meat, in particular beef. It is replaced by chicken, turkey and tuna. Both complain that the quality of beef has noticeably fallen. Alexandra, 53, from Chelyabinsk (income of 100 thousand rubles for a family of two) says that before the war she often bought pork, but now she buys it mixed with chicken in “Chizhik”, and she is not very satisfied with the quality there either.
Sausages. Katerina points out that she has started to buy more cooked sausages and sausages, before the war she used to buy raw smoked sausage or baked brisket. Oleg, 25-year-old from St. Petersburg with an income of Br160 thousand for a family of two says that he buys a stick of his favorite raw smoked sausage for Br1.3 thousand only at the end of the month and if he has enough money left. In general, despite the doubling of his salary over the last 3.5 years, Oleg feels about the same level as before, and often even less solvent.
Fish and caviar. Alexandra notes that before the war she used to buy the cheapest red fish, chilled pink salmon, which was very affordable. Now, she estimates that it has doubled in price. "And we replaced it with the usual funny fish mintai, and not chilled, but frozen. My husband still buys sometimes his stinky chilled flounder, which costs 400 rubles, and used to be 100," she notes. A can of canned saira used to cost about 200 rubles, but now it costs 280 rubles, so instead of it now a Russian woman sometimes buys “slightly bitter and not very interesting” canned mackerel for 180 rubles. The cheapest pink salmon caviar, which cost 180 rubles for a 180 gram jar, Alexandra also stopped taking it. She says that this is the price of caviar with the word “stabilized” on it.
Cheese and milk. Katerina now mostly buys cheese “Russian” although she used to allow herself Parmesan. Andrei says that he tries to buy quality products for normal consumption in the family, but for adding to any dishes he has already switched to cheaper versions. Andrei now takes almost the cheapest milk, before the war he used to buy one of the most expensive brands - Parmalat. Alexandra notes a deterioration in the quality of cheese. She used to take gouda in Spar stores, now she mostly goes to “Chizhik” for it and complains that both there and there the cheese has become tasteless, low-fat and «plasticine».
Bread and potatoes. The respondents often point to the rise in the price of bread and reduction of its packaging. But they cannot refuse from it. As a positive point, they note that it is often sold in sliced form and it is even more convenient to buy it in halves. As for potatoes, Alexandra testifies that there are no domestic tubers in Chelyabinsk stores, and that in “Chizhik” (a kilogram for 90 rubles) and in Spar (160 rubles) the same Egyptian potatoes are sold - beautiful externally, but watery and unpalatable inside.
Fruit. Katerina notes that before the war she did not look at prices and bought a variety of fruits, but now she mostly buys basic and inexpensive ones - apples and bananas. She can no longer afford strawberries for 700 rubles per kilogram. Alexandra recalls that earlier every summer her family always bought cherries, peaches and apricots. "Now it is unaffordable, I'll be honest. Recently we bought 200 grams of cherries to eat a little. 600 rubles per kg - for us it is very high. And this is not “Chizhike” - there is no such fruit there. In general, now we buy apples, apples and apples again, rarely take four pears (laughs). Recently we bought green seedless grapes for 300 rubles, while before we used to buy the same grapes for 90 rubles," she says.
Juices, beer and wine. Katerina, who has always loved juices, has almost given them up. "If before you could buy a liter of good juice for 80 rubles, now it's 130-150. So I switched to drinks like Lipton iced tea." Before the war, Andrei preferred the leading German, Czech and Belgian brands - Paulaner, Pilsner, Wolpertinger, Spaten and Leffe. Now he buys little-known analogs from Germany for 200 rubles per 0.5 liter. Oleg before the war liked to take a can or two of Irish Kilkénny, but now he goes to the “bottling shop” near his home and buys Russian beer (however, he does not suffer from the lack of different types of beer there). Before the war, Alexandra's husband liked to buy cheap but imported beer in the stores for 70-80 rubles a can. But now it has gone up in price, so he takes the cheapest Russian beer for the same money. She herself preferred wine, but the cheapest wine in glass bottles now costs about 400 rubles, and she does not buy it.
The Central Bank and various analysts have been recording since the beginning of the war that people due to the sharp rise in the price of non-food goods (cars, appliances, furniture, etc.) postpone these purchases and shift their demand to food. Oleg says that he has started to save money on household goods - for example, he takes very cheap soap or ordinary dishwashing sponges, while before he did not even look at the price.
In turn, Alexandra notes: if earlier the same residents of Chelyabinsk tried not to show that they go to hard discounters, now in “Chizhik”, according to her words, “go all - even people getting out of more or less expensive cars”. And they stand in long lines, she points out.
Andrei, despite some growth in income in recent years, also says that he started buying basic products like milk and cereals in “Chizhik”. And in general, the volume of goods from the stores' own brands (like Krasnaya Tsena) has increased in his basket. He also notes that their quality is lower than that of regular products.
Almost all respondents of “MO” began to go to cafes or order delivery of pizza and sushi less often. They are also dissatisfied with the quality of food there and the price increase by the same 1.5-2.5 times.
Dmitry Pachin, Commercial Director of O'Key, recently told the industry portal Retail.ru: his hypermarkets differ from the rest in that they operate in a slightly more premium segment. “And we see that the upper ”expensive" basket does not show a strong drop, but at the same time from the middle basket customers begin to switch to the lower basket. This economic effect is called ‘the poor get poorer, the rich get richer’."
He and Lenta's commercial director, Vitaly Valkov, say that prices at suppliers are rising faster than on the shelves. That is, retailers are trying to curb food inflation. Retailers are always trying to put themselves in the best light, but the need for this is certainly caused by real price rises.
The latter, says Zhukovsky, is due to the need to raise wages because of the shortage of personnel due to their emigration from Russia and the departure of many of them for the war with Ukraine. In addition, there is the factor of reduction in the flow of imported goods into Russia (as a result, imports become more expensive, and Russian companies raise prices in the absence of competition) and rising prices for foreign production equipment, as well as imported veterinary drugs, seeds, and so on. And, of course, all business is trying to insure itself against future crises and earn more now.
Earlier, in late April, MO compared prices in Moscow's Auchan economy hypermarket and New York's Walmart, which represents a similar category of stores. As a result, it turned out that some of the goods in Russia have already approached the American prices or even overtook them.
For example:
a liter of the cheapest milk in “Ashan” cost 90 rubles, and in Walmart - 83 rubles (in terms of dollars);
the most affordable cheddar in a Moscow store cost 209 rubles for 200 grams, when in the American store it cost 193 rubles for 226 grams;
a kilogram of strawberries in Auchan cost 1,000 rubles, while in Walmart it cost 591 rubles;
for a pack of trout fillets of 450 grams, Muscovites paid 980 rubles, and New Yorkers - 909 rubles.
At the same time, the average salaries in these cities differ by more than four times. And if a conditional resident of the capital of Russia received 136 thousand rubles per month (as of January 2025), the inhabitant of the “Big Apple” - 579 thousand rubles (according to the latest available data for the whole year 2023).
