Journalist: Muscovites Will Part Reluctantly with Dairy and Canned Fish
The Estonian products Russians will miss the most in the next year will be dairy products and tinned smoked sprats, said journalist Krister Paris, a former Moscow resident from his days as ERR's Russia correspondent.
"At least in Moscow, you won't find dairy products of that quality," said Paris in a piece in the Eesti Päevaleht daily following the Kremlin's one-year ban on Western meat, dairy and produce.
Other Estonian products that sell well in Russia are soup in glass jars and Russian-style pelmeni, which Paris said local industry has not been able to produce in mass quantities at a consistent quality.
Paris characterized modern Russia as a time-strapped society where the "microwave oven is king," used to defrost food made ahead on the weekends or store-bought convenience foods.
"We've talked to people who say that Moscow has large shoppers' clubs who pool orders for high-quality, good foodstuffs from Estonia," Paris also wrote. But Paris acknowledged that it's not as if Estonian products are everywhere in Moscow shops; it's rare to find to find them in major quantities.