OREANDA-NEWS. December 15, 2008. Following the instruction of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia), aimed at stabilizing the goods markets of the Russian Federation against the crisis on the financial markets, in October 2008 the regional offices of FAS Russia monitored prices for the socially important goods - bread, milk and sunflower oil, along the related production chains of the above products, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

Monitoring of the bread market showed that in general increase of retail prices for wheat and rye bread in the Russian Federation was not pronounced.

Ex-works prices of the producers of bread and bread-and-flour products remained stable and did not change in most regions, except the Arkhangelsk, Bryansk, Kirov, Kurgan, Kostroma, Magadan, Orel, Tambov, Tomsk, Krasnoayarsk, Primorsky, and Khabarosk regions and the republics of Mordovia, Sakha-Yakutia and Udmurtia.

Nevertheless, price incase in the above regions was insignificant and was observed for certain types of bread made by individual producers. In some regions, prices for bread went down and remained stable and unchanged in majority of the constituent territories of the Russian Federation.

The ex-works and retail prices for milk increased in September - October 2008. Price changes were non-uniform - in some regions ex-works prices decreased.

On average, the ex-works prices for milk in the Russian Federation increased in October by 2-3% in comparison with September. In most regions the price level remained the same.

According to the regional offices of FAS Russia, insignificant price increase can be explained by seasonal reduction of production of raw milk and, consequently, the growth of procurement prices.

Analysis of the situation on the market of sunflower oil showed that increasing ex-works prices for bottled refined deodorized sunflower oil from the beginning of 2008 was due to the growing cost of the product, associated mainly with the 25% growth of purchasing prices for the raw material.

The ex-works prices for sunflower oil decreased slightly in October 2008 due to the reduction of prices for the raw material used for its production. On average, the ex-works prices reduced by 10 % and prices for the raw materials - by 15 %, which was typical for many Russian regions.

At the same time retail prices for sunflower oil grew up in the following regions of the Russian Federation: the Republic of Buryatia, the Vologda, Kurgan, Murmansk, Pskov, Ryazan, Tomsk, Ulyanovsk, Chuvashia, Khabarovsk, Kamchatka Regions, the Jewish Autonomous Region, and the Khanty-Mansiisk Autonomous District.

Monitoring of the markets of socially important goods, carried out by the FAS Russia's regional offices, did not reveal any violations of the antimonopoly legislation in the analyzed period.