Food Poppy Banned on Straw Fears
Russia’s confectionaries have faced acute shortage of food poppy, the price for which has recently soared from 90 rubles to between 210 rubles and 220 rubles per a kilogram. The reason is the requirement of Federal Customs Service, whereby only the poppy of 100-percent purification could be imported to Russia. Previously, the impurities, the poppy straw for instance, were often found in the raw poppy, the officials claim.
Wholesale prices for poppy soared from between 70 rubles and 75 rubles to 90 rubles per a kilogram by August, and the raw cost 210 rubles to 220 rubles in November, Rustam Atakhodzhaev, general director of Cheremushki bakery, said pointing out that there was no way to buy poppy in addition to high prices.
“With the aggregate monthly demand of our enterprises of five tons of poppy, we can hardly find this quantity of product on the market,” said St. Petersburg Khlebny Dom General Director Alexei Timchenko. Klhebny Dom is the subsidiary of Finland’ Fazer.
The reason is simple. Planting poppy is prohibited in Russia, but the Federal Customs Service restricted its import in August, blaming the limits on availability of drug impurities, the poppy straw and the poppy milk, in the raw poppy.
“All poppy seeds without the 100-percent purification were said containing the drug and banned from being imported to Russia,” the confectioners commented on November situation with supplies of this popular product.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 20, 2007
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Photo: Dmitry Kostyukov
