Fruits of the free market

Press, 1 August 1987, Page 20

Fruits of the free market

By Xan Smiley, of the “Daily Telegraph,” in Moscow

for $13.50, while delicious little clutches of coriander, lemon balm, tarragon, dill and a sort of basil whifch sounds, in Russian, like “Reagan” are not cheap either. The greatest extravagance is probably a succulent type of melon, shaped like a rugby ball, at $54. And this is the cheap season. In winter, tomatoes from a Georgian greenhouse can go up to $67.50 a kilo, a single lettuce — a real cold-weather variety — to $lO.BO. Russians, who frequently bring flowers when visiting, pay $13.50 or $16.20 for half a dozen carnations, and in winter the price can double. So it is understandable that the market queues are short. Heavily subsidised meat in the state shops is sometimes only $4.90 a kilo, rising to about $lO.BO for the less gristly veal and $18.90 or $24.30 for sausage, but there is a snag. It is very often unavailable, the queues are long, and the stuff is invariably smelly and fatty. The Russian diet, and health, suffer.

For sheer exuberant diversity, both in people and in ways of making a living, you cannot beat the Moscow market — the privateers’ local hurly-burly that puts the state shops to shame. We are lucky enough to have the best of Moscow’s 29 covered markets five minutes’ walk away, and if it wasn’t so expensive it would be unadulterated fun. The people behind the stands are jolly, their stuff is good, there are no queues, and the standard of “Daily Telegraph” home cuisine, abetted by packages sent occasionally on the train from Helsinki, is kept up. Most ordinary Russians, alas, are too poor to buy much there, except for special occasions, and many shoppers are foreign or those of the Russian rich who do not have access to special party shops. The key items are herbs, fruit, vegetables and meat — at a price. Pork goes for $32.50 a kilo, veal for $21.60 or $24.30, peaches and apples and pears for $27, grapes, prunes and walnuts for $21.60, and strawberries

Nearly all the market sellers are employed by the State or on collective farms but use their holidays to come up, often from remote regions, to sell what they have grown — piglets or veg or fruit — in their spare time. Within a couple of days they have usually sold out. A market stand costs them only about $4.05 a day, and they stay in dormitories or small rooms in a hostel above the market at $5.40 a night. The resulting bonus to what they earn from their State jobs is spectacular and tax-free.

One fellow, clearly a Thatcherite, who wanted a precise breakdown of every item in Britain, cleared $540 in a day on strawberries. Another reckoned that a calf, bred since October, would bring in about $2700 (half a year’s average pay). The honey man, a factory driver who has 10 hives for a hobby, was making $1620 from his four days, while a pile of 500 Georgian loofahs, those sponge-like back-scratch-ers, should fetch $5400.