Food Consumption in Russia by Year: Statistics and Charts

2026-09-21 · Living standards

In 2024 the average resident of Russia ate 82 kilograms of meat, 253 kilograms of milk and dairy products, 106 kilograms of vegetables, 84 kilograms of potatoes and 293 eggs. For meat, fruit, vegetables and vegetable oil these are historic highs: the country has never consumed so much before, including 1990. For milk and potatoes the 1990 level has not been matched yet. The data are from Rosstat, the series runs from 1990.

Below is a table for key years, an analysis of what has risen and what has fallen, the gap between the poorest and richest households and interactive charts.

Food Consumption in Russia by Year

Kilograms per person per year, eggs in pieces.

The full series for all years since 1990 is available in the dataset on the website: there you will also find a chart that can be zoomed to the desired decade.

What grew: meat, fruit, vegetables

The main story of the series is meat. In 1990 there were 75 kilograms per person, by 1999 it was down to 45. A drop of 40 percent over ten years, and in the same period meat became the main marker of poverty: it was replaced by potatoes and bread.

The rebound took almost twenty years. The 1990 level was only overtaken in 2012 (73 kilograms), and thereafter growth was slow and steady: 75 in 2013, 78 in 2022, 80 in 2023, 82 in 2024.

Fruit and berries grew almost twice: 35 kilograms in 1990, 27 in the disastrous 1999, 65 in 2024. Vegetables rose from 89 to 106 kilograms. Vegetable oil increased from 10.2 to 14 kilograms.

The chart shows that the three lines diverge exactly in the middle of the 2000s. Meat and fruit go up, potatoes go down, and it is the same phenomenon: cheap carbohydrates are displaced by protein and fresh food as soon as money allows.

What did not return: milk, potatoes, bread

Milk is the only product that never recovered its decline. In 1990 this was 387 kilograms per person in milk equivalents, in 1999 it was 214. Then twenty‑five years of slow return, and still 253 kilograms in 2024, i.e., a third less than the Soviet level.

Part of the gap is explained by the Soviet habit of drinking whole milk and kefir disappearing in the 1990s, part by dairy products becoming more expensive relative to other calories. Rosstat counts this line in milk equivalents, so cheese and cottage cheese are also included.

Potatoes decline steadily and without pauses: 127 kilograms in 1993, 109 in 2000, 95 in 2010, 84 in 2024. Bread products stayed at 117 until 2016 and only then began to fall, to 113 kilograms.

Sugar, after the drop of the 1990s, returned to 39 kilograms and has stayed at that level for the eighth year in a row.

How much the poor and the rich eat

The average figure hides a gap that is visible in another Rosstat survey: there households are divided into ten income groups, from the first (the poorest 10 percent) to the tenth (the most affluent 10 percent).

The latest year of the series gives the following picture:

• meat: 68 kilograms in the first group, 126 in the tenth;
• fruit: 42 versus 101;
• milk: 176 versus 320;
• fish: 15 versus 29;
• bread: 75 versus 90;
• potatoes: 47 versus 53.

The gap for meat, fruit and fish is almost double, for bread and potatoes it is almost nonexistent. Cheap calories are consumed by everyone roughly alike, while income differences turn into differences in protein and fresh products. Breakdown for all ten groups is updated each year.

An important detail: the lower group is growing faster than the upper one. Since 2012 the poorest 10 percent have increased meat consumption from 52 to 68 kilograms (plus 31 percent), the upper group from 106 to 126 (plus 19 percent). The gap is narrowing, but slowly.

Questions and Answers

How much meat does a Russian eat per year?

82 kilograms for 2024, converted to pure meat. This is more than in 1990 (75 kg) and almost twice the minimum of 1999 (45 kg). The Ministry of Health's recommended norm is 73 kilograms, so the average exceeds it. The series for all years is on the page meat consumption by year.

How much milk is consumed in Russia?

253 kilograms per person per year, converted to milk, including cheese, cottage cheese, kefir and butter. The Ministry of Health's norm is 325 kilograms, so there is a shortfall of about 20 percent. Separate page: milk consumption by year.

How does Rosstat calculate food consumption?

In two ways at once. The first is the resource and use balance: production plus imports minus exports and losses, divided by the population. This yields a series from 1990 that is used in this article. The second is a selective survey of household budgets, where families record purchases. The second method gives numbers lower than the balance ones because it accounts for what is actually eaten at home, and it is used for the breakdown by income groups.

Why is potato consumption falling?

It is a general sign of rising incomes: the more money, the smaller the share of cheap starchy products in the diet. Over thirty‑four years potatoes lost 22 kilograms, while meat and fruit gained 7 and 30 respectively. A similar substitution occurred in all middle‑income countries.

Are we eating more than in the USSR?

For meat, vegetables, fruit, vegetable oil and eggs, yes. For milk, potatoes and bread, no. The overall caloric content of the diet has hardly changed; the composition has changed: less bread and potatoes, more protein and fresh products.

Briefly

• Meat: 82 kg per person in 2024, a historic series maximum.
• Milk: 253 kg versus 387 in 1990, the only product with a large unrecouped decline.
• Fruit: 65 kg, almost twice the Soviet level.
• Potatoes and bread are slowly leaving the diet: 84 and 113 kg.
• The gap between the poorest and the best‑off families is almost double for meat, fruit and fish and almost zero for bread and potatoes.

Data source: Rosstat, food resource balances and a sample survey of household budgets.