"Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev has met with producers and processors today. A decision has been made to prolong the agreement until May 1," the press service representative said.
In line with the agreement, concluded last fall between Russian food producers and major retail chains, prices of milk, eggs, vegetable oil, bread and kefir (a fermented milk drink) were frozen from October 24 to January 31, 2008.
Food price hikes accelerated in Russia over the summer and autumn, following trends on world markets. According to the country's statistics service, the fastest growth in September last year was demonstrated by rapeseed and soybean oil prices (13.5%), pasteurized milk (9.4%), fermented milk products (7.9%) and curds (7.4% - 7.5%).
Driven by food price growth, consumer prices in Russia grew 7.5% in the first nine months of 2007, or 0.3% more than in the same period of last year. In September alone they climbed 0.8%, making the government's 8% inflation target for 2007 unrealistic.
