Russia to refuse from Ukrainian salt

Russia's Agriculture Minister Nikolai Fyodorov said that the production of Russian salt would grow by ten percent to one million tons by the year-end.

Factories in Orenburg and Astrakhan regions of the country have been reequipped accordingly, he added.

The government paid attention to the problem of Russia's dependence on imported salt last year. Russia imports 40 percent of the widely used food additive - about 600 thousand tons per year. Ukraine supplies 0.5 million tons of the product to Russia.

Back in 2007, Russia produced 1.8 million tons of salt. Afterwards, Russia developed a food security doctrine, according to which Russia was supposed to produce 85 percent for the domestic market.