Blessed Are Russia's Cheesemakers
A worker separates lumps of Viola cheese before processing on the production line at the Valio Oy cheese manufacturing plant in Yershovo, Russia, on Dec. 8, 2015
Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/BloombergRussian President Vladimir Putin’s ban on many food imports in retaliation for Western sanctions has taught his country to feed itself, and that's helped keep inflation down.
Cut off from delicacies ranging from French brie and camembert to Norwegian salmon since August 2014, local companies have stepped in with their own production. Russians have eaten it up, with consumption of foreign produce now nearly at historical lows, according to ACRA, a rating company.
In value terms, imports now account for as little as 22 percent of food sales, down from 34 percent at the start of 2014, ACRA said in a report. Even when inflation peaked near 17 percent in March 2015, the effect of the ban contributed only 1.6 percentage point to that reading, it estimates.