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He said that at the beginning of the pandemic was high demand for food commodities. “At the peak of purchases for the future in the second half of March grocery sales in the country soared 3.5 times, meat and canned food – 2.5 times, milk and fish – by 1.5 times. To rhythmically fill the shelves, we had, in fact, in manual mode, you can co-ordinate the entire distribution network”, – he reported.

the Minister also noted the work of colleagues from the Ministry of agriculture, which promptly started the work to increase production of basic foodstuffs.

“as a result citizens were able to buy everything they needed without any restrictions. At the same time, fully saved the market mechanisms of the industry. We had not even considered the question of regulation of issuing products to one person or price controls, and other extreme solutions, although such proposals have repeatedly been made. Without extreme measures, we avoided empty shelves, mile-long queues and rising prices for food, as it was in several cities of Europe and America”, – said Manturov.

Less than a month, he said, the demand returned to normal values.

sales of masks in commercial networks at the peak of demand in may was up to 3 million pieces per day, now it’s dropped to 700 thousand a day, said the head of the Ministry of industry and trade.

in addition, he asked Vladimir Putin as a swift action to authorize the regions to reduce the bureaucratic barriers related to small trade. “This will allow us to expand the distribution channels and, above all, this applies to small producers and farmers. And most importantly, it will also help employment,” – said Manturov.