Experts calculate the cost of a food basket in Russian cities

The study was carried out from October to November 2024 in 19 Russian cities and seven federal supermarket chains: Pyaterochka, Super Lenta, Verny, Magnit, Dixie, Fasol, Vkusville. The most expensive food basket was in Krasnodar (4,865 rubles, 13% above the average), Chelyabinsk (4,786 rubles, 11.2% more expensive than the average) and Volgograd (4,757 rubles, 10.5 % more expensive).

At the same time, the country’s largest cities, such as Moscow and St. Petersburg, did not reach the top positions in terms of food prices and occupied the middle and bottom of the list. For example, in Samara, Voronezh and Rostov-on-Don the food basket is on average more expensive than in Moscow, while Kaliningrad, Krasnoyarsk and Omsk were cheaper in Saint Petersburg.

Among the cities, the cheapest products are found in Novosibirsk: the average price of a basket was 3,802 rubles, 13.15% cheaper than the Russian average. The most affordable chain was Pyaterochka (3,368 rubles, 27.7% cheaper than the average), the most expensive was VkusVill (6,674 rubles, 55.1% more expensive).

Experts also found that 39% of Russians spend 30-50% of their income on food, and 30% of the country’s residents are forced to spend “50% or more of their wallet” .

According to a Rusprodsoyuz study from August, the price of a minimum monthly food basket per person has increased by more than 10% since the beginning of 2024 and amounts to about 6.7 thousand rubles. The most expensive set of basic foodstuffs was in Chukotka (15.2 thousand rubles) and in the Magadan region (11 thousand rubles).

In June this year, the Government raised the cost of living for 2025 to 17,733 rubles on average and to 19,329 rubles for the working population. In Moscow for 2024, these figures are 22,662 rubles and 25,879 rubles, respectively.