Russian food companies provide 70 percent of national needs

Russians eat less now in comparison with the eighties

Russian food manufacturers have been providing only 70 percent of the national need in food stuffs since 2003. Russian people consume about 30 percent of imported food, the chairman of the food department of the Federal Agricultural Agency, Vasily Mezhevikin stated at the opening of the agricultural forum “The food security in the North-West of Russia.” The forum was held within the framework of the agricultural show “Argorus-2004.”

Mezhevikin stated that the tendency for the export of food products is likely to be preserved in 2004. Enterprises of the Russian agricultural and industrial complex are capable of satisfying all demands of the population. However, the nation's low purchasing capacity is the only obstacle on the way, Mezhevikin said.

The expansion of the Russian food export was possible to achieve owing to growing deliveries to CIS countries: from $297.3 million in 2000 to $890 million in 2003. In addition, Mezhevikin added, a Russian person eats 2,700 kilocalories daily at present, whereas the average food consumption index in the USSR made up over 3,000 kilocalories before the so-called perestroika period.