Food Prices in 2026: What Went Up and What Went Down Over the Year

2026-10-02 · Prices, inflation

Over the year, from September 22, 2025 to September 21, 2026, food prices rose very unevenly. Potatoes increased by 32%, cabbage by 30%, eggs by 18.5%, beef by 15%. Butter over the same period became cheaper by almost 8%, cheese and cottage cheese also became cheaper. A regular weekly basket for a family of 18 products (list below) cost 3,914 roubles a year ago, now 4,174. The difference is 260 roubles, or 6.7%, and two thirds of it is due to meat. These are Rosstat’s weekly average prices for Russia. Below is a table of prices, basket calculation and weekly charts showing when each item became more expensive.

How Much Food Costs in September 2026

Rosstat collects prices for 131 goods and services each week, about a third of which are food. Here are the main items, average price across Russia in roubles.

All 131 items by week from January 2022 are in the weekly average price dataset of Rosstat. There you can open any product separately and see its full line.

One caveat about these figures. This is the average price for the country: in Moscow and in the Far East the same kilogram costs differently, and data for the DPR, LPR, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions are not included by Rosstat in this table.

Weekly basket: how much it has become more expensive

To turn percentages into money, we take a set that a family of three can buy for a week. The composition was chosen manually, prices taken from the same Rosstat table:

• 1 kg of beef and 2 kg of chicken;
• a dozen eggs, 3 liters of milk, half a kilogram of cottage cheese, cheese and butter;
• one kilogram each of wheat and rye bread, a kilogram of buckwheat, a kilogram of sugar, a liter of sunflower oil;
• 3 kg of potatoes, one kilogram each of cabbage, carrots, onions and beets, 2 kg of apples.

In a year the set became more expensive by 260 rubles, or 6.7%. Since the end of December by 205 rubles, or 5.2%. It was most expensive at the beginning of August, 4,263 rubles, then the new‑harvest vegetables started to become cheaper and dropped almost ninety rubles.

Where did these 260 rubles come from. Beef added 98 rubles, two kilograms of chicken 74, three kilograms of potatoes 38. The other products together became more expensive by another 112 rubles, and 62 rubles were returned by cheaper butter, cheese and cottage cheese. It turns out that in 2026 the family food bill is inflated by meat, not by bread or milk. Whoever has more dairy in the receipt has a lower growth rate.

Vegetables: expensive in summer, cheaper with the new harvest

The price of potatoes, cabbage, carrots, onions and beets goes in circles. In autumn, when the harvest arrives, they are cheap. By spring and summer the stocks run out, and the price rises until July. Then it falls again.

In 2026 the peak fell in July. On July 6 potatoes cost 75.90 rubles per kilogram, carrots 69.21 on July 13, onions 64.92 on July 6. It sounds expensive, but a year earlier the peak was higher: in June 2025 potatoes reached 95.28 rubles, beets 83.81, carrots in July 80.77. The summer jump of 2026 turned out to be milder than the previous year.

Why then is potatoes 32% more expensive in the table above than a year ago? Because different points of the circle are compared. By September 22, 2025 vegetables had already fallen to the autumn bottom, and in 2026 the decline comes later. Potatoes get cheaper each week: on August 31 59.12 rubles, September 7 56.40, September 14 54.59, September 21 52.66. Last year the bottom was on October 6, 39.48 rubles. If the season repeats, the borscht set will become even cheaper by the end of October.

With greenhouse vegetables the season is opposite. Cucumbers are most expensive in winter: on February 16, 2026 a kilogram cost 336.07 rubles, in September 123.75. Tomatoes are most expensive in spring, 321.55 rubles on April 13, now 171.43. In summer cucumbers are almost three times cheaper than in winter, tomatoes half as expensive.

Meat, fish and eggs

There is almost no seasonality here, the price simply rises. Beef has been increasing almost every week since January and on September 21 reached the year's peak, 756.41 roubles per kilogram. Frozen fish costs 378.96 roubles. Chicken held steady for half a year, then started to rise from July: on July 6 a kilogram cost 243.78 roubles, by September 21 it was already 266.76. Pork, in contrast, moves hardly at all: 405.84 roubles, 1.7% more than a year ago.

For a family that buys meat once a week, this is the most tangible change. A kilogram of beef and two chickens cost 1,118 roubles a year ago, now 1,290. Replacing part of the beef with pork in 2026 really saves money: the difference between them is 350 roubles per kilogram.

Eggs jumped all year. In April a dozen cost 114.91 roubles, by early August it fell to 92.91, and in September rose again to 99.58. Compared with September 2025 this is a plus 18.5%, but it has not reached the January 2025 level of 118.53 roubles. The annual series of egg prices is compiled in the summary "Egg prices by year".

Sugar, buckwheat and bread

Sugar started the year cheaper than it was in autumn: on January 19 a kilogram cost 67.82 roubles. Then it became more expensive all year, faster in summer: on July 6 it was 76.42 roubles, on September 14 86.65. From the end of December it is up by 25%. Buckwheat changed little until summer, 80.16 roubles on July 6, and by September 21 rose to 89.41, the year's maximum.

Bread becomes more expensive slowly, but without pauses. Wheat bread rose from 117.29 roubles per kilogram in December to 125.40, rye from 100.04 to 107.37. That is about 7% over nine months, or 7–8 roubles per kilogram. A little, but bread is bought almost every day.

What got cheaper: dairy products

The dairy shelf in 2026 is becoming cheaper more noticeably than the rest. Butter in January cost 1,176 rubles per kilogram, in August fell to 1,093.47, now 1,098.79. Cheeses got cheaper from 980.75 rubles in February to 940.42, cottage cheese from 482.29 to 473.80, sour cream from 362.66 to 352.82. Milk is almost unchanged: 97.91 rubles per liter of pasteurised milk, 1.2% more expensive than a year ago.

Butter has been getting cheaper for a year and a half: it was most expensive on March 24 2025, 1,234.78 rubles. But the old prices are far away. In January 2022 a kilogram cost 725.09 rubles, so even now butter is 52% more expensive. Prices for milk by year are in the summary "Milk prices by year".

Why it seems more expensive in the store than the inflation reports say

The official food price index for January–August 2026 rose by 2.81%, over 12 months by 5.09%. Our basket increased by 6.7% over the year. There is no contradiction, there are three reasons.

First: Rosstat's index includes many more products, including cucumbers and tomatoes, which had become cheaper by September, and butter and cheese, which were cheaper all year. Our set contains more meat and potatoes, and they have been rising.

Second: the index is calculated monthly and ends in August, while weekly prices extend to September 21.

Third: the monthly index shows that food prices rose in jumps. In January products rose by 1.95% for the month, while in April, May and August they fell, in May by 0.85%. Those who shop in bulk once a month notice the January spike, while small declines pass unnoticed.

Monthly indices for all groups are on the page "Inflation in 2026", and the analysis of which goods and services drove overall inflation the most is in the article "Inflation in 2026: what rose the most".

Prices in 2026 versus 2022

Rosstat's weekly series starts on 10 January 2022, so we can see how prices have changed over four and a half years.

Buckwheat is the only item in the list that became cheaper than at the start of 2022: back then it cost 117.93 rubles. Beef almost doubled over the same period. If you want to compare these prices with your salary or pension from those years, recalculate the amount in the inflation calculator.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a kilogram of potatoes cost in 2026?

On 21 September 2026 the average price across Russia was 52.66 rubles. It was higher in the summer, 75.90 rubles at the beginning of July. From August the price falls each week.

When will vegetables become cheaper?

Historically, by October. In 2025 potatoes, cabbage and beetroot reached their lowest price on 6 October, carrots and onions in November. In 2026 the decline started in July and is still ongoing in September.

Which products became cheaper in 2026?

Among the main ones: butter (-6.5% since the end of December), cheeses (-3.4%), sour cream (-2.6%), cottage cheese (-1.8%), cucumbers and tomatoes (seasonal). Rice became cheaper by 2.4% over the year, apples held their price.

How much does a cafeteria meal cost?

According to Rosstat, a meal in a cafeteria, cafe or snack bar in September 2026 cost an average of 625.88 rubles. A year earlier it was 569.27, i.e., 9.9% more.

Brief

For the year up to September 2026, food prices rose unevenly. The biggest increases were potatoes (+32%), cabbage (+30%), eggs (+18.5%), sugar (+17%), chicken (+16%) and beef (+15%). Butter (−7.8%), cheeses, cottage cheese and sour cream became cheaper. A basket of 18 products for a week for a family became more expensive, from 3,914 to 4,174 rubles, a 6.7% increase, and two thirds of this increase was due to meat. Vegetables are now getting cheaper with the new harvest and, judging by past years, will keep getting cheaper until October.

See also

• Inflation in 2026 by month
• Food prices by year since 1991
• Inflation calculator