SIMFEROPOL, March 21, /ITAR-TASS/. Over 200 Russian companies are ready to deliver food products to Crimean trading networks. These are essential foods such as cereals, vegetables, melons and gourds, meat and meat products, eggs, bread and baked products, wheat flour, vegetable oil, spices, canned meat and fish, and tea, says a report of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Republic of Crimea.

The suppliers mentioned include Wimm-Bill-Dann, Petelinka, Rusagro Group of Companies, Russkoye more, Mistral.

There is no shortage of food products in local shops so far, and these are preventive measures, Irina Prokhorenkova, the first deputy minister of economic development and trade of the Republic of Crimea, told Itar-Tass.

She recalled that the Supreme Rada (parliament) of Ukraine on Thursday passed in the first reading the bill “On the legal regime to ensure the rights and freedoms of citizens on the occupied territories of Ukraine”. “If this document is passed in the final reading, Crimea will be cut off from Ukraine. The borders will be blocked; export and import and the travel to and from Crimea will be restricted,” she said. “So it will be necessary to supply food products to Crimea from the mainland part of the Russian Federation,” the deputy minister noted. What is more, Prohkhorenkova added, Crimean producers will not be able to deliver their products to other Russian regions overland, via Ukrainian territory, and will have to rely on transportation by sea.

The deputy minister has said prices in Crimean stores now rose slightly, by five to ten percent. “We follow the situation with prices daily,” Prokhorenkova stressed.