Cucumber prices are skyrocketing in Russia, and so is anger over wartime tariffs

The humble cucumber, a favorite in salads and Russian cuisine, is the latest food in the country to suddenly rise in price, angering consumers and arousing politicians and regulators eager to quell any popular wartime discontent.

Official statistics show that cucumbers have doubled in price since December to reach an average of more than 300 rubles per kilogram (or about $5.37 Cdn), and social media has been flooded with pictures of them sometimes being sold for more than double or triple that.

Under pressure from politicians – including those from the United Russia ruling party facing parliamentary elections later this year – the anti-monopoly regulator has written to producers and sellers, asking them to explain the price increase.

“This winter, a new ‘delicacy’ appeared in our stores – cucumbers,” said Sergei Mironov, the parliamentary leader of the Just Russia party, noting that the Ministry of Agriculture blamed the increase in the price of cucumbers during the season.

“They used the same definition of last year’s ‘golden potatoes’, and now it’s ‘hardened’ cucumbers,” said Mironov, a former political activist-turned-politician who often highlights sensitive issues that upset voters across the world’s largest country.

“What are people supposed to do? Just accept that they won’t be able to buy basic food?” he asked.

Producers have assured consumers that cucumber prices may drop next month if the weather warms up. Authorities have dealt with similar price issues for other foods in the past, and there are no signs of public complaints about price hikes – fueled by social media – posing a threat to social stability.

But the sudden rise in cucumber prices comes with a 2.1 percent increase in overall prices since the start of the year – partly the result of additional tax increases – and comes as people worry about rising costs at a time when Russia’s economy is slowing after four years of war in Ukraine.

‘Golden cucumbers’

With Russia’s central bank predicting annual inflation of up to 5.5 percent this year, people are also complaining about rising utility costs, fuel costs, supermarket prices and restaurant bills.

With the prices of cucumbers now exceeding those of imported fruits such as bananas, some supermarkets in Siberia are limiting the amount that any customer can buy. And one of Russia’s best-selling newspapers has given its readers seeds to grow their own at home.

Mironov’s party and the Communist party – both of which have seats in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament – have proposed that the government put money into grocery stores.

Yevgeny Popov, a lawyer for the ruling party, tried to play down the crisis on social media, saying that cucumber prices would drop and Russia would be completely independent of the product.

He was immediately reprimanded by some of his followers.

“The prices of cucumbers and tomatoes are exorbitant,” wrote one woman who identified herself as Svetlana. “A long time ago they called eggs ‘golden’ (because they were expensive). Now they are golden cucumbers.”

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