Daily Prices, October 12: Yekaterinburg Drops 16.95 ₽/kg a Day After a Record
Yekaterinburg fell in one day from a record 62.95 to 46 ₽/kg — the sharpest one-day drop in the history of potatoway measurements. The median across 10 cities is 40.2 ₽/kg; Rosstat shows a fourth week of decline.
Potatoes in Yekaterinburg fell to 46 ₽/kg — down 16.95 ₽ from the previous day’s record 62.95 ₽. This is the sharpest one-day drop in the entire history of the potatoway.ru project’s daily measurements. The median across the 10 sampled cities is 40.2 ₽/kg; Rosstat data as of October 5 still show a weekly decline: 49.86 ₽/kg, down 1.17 ₽ from a week earlier.
| City | Median, ₽/kg | vs. previous measurement |
|---|---|---|
| Oryol | 27.95 | ▲2 since 06.10 |
| Ivanovo | 29.45 | ▼2.5 since 05.10 |
| Bryansk | 29.9 | ▲1 since 29.09 |
| Volgograd | 36.45 | ▼3.45 since 11.10 |
| Kemerovo | 39.45 | ▼8.8 since 10.10 |
| Chelyabinsk | 40.95 | ▲0.5 since 09.10 |
| Naberezhnye Chelny | 41.95 | ▼1 since 07.10 |
| Izhevsk | 43.45 | ▲0.5 since 04.10 |
| Yekaterinburg | 46 | ▼16.95 since 11.10 |
| Samara | 46 | = since 10.10 |
Median across 10 cities — 40.2 ₽/kg (regular potatoes). The set of cities changes daily, so comparing medians from different days directly is incorrect: look at the dynamics within cities and at Rosstat’s weekly data.
Why the record lasted only a day
Yekaterinburg’s jump to 62.95 ₽/kg the day before was the absolute maximum of potatoway measurements — the previous record (Perm, 58.95 ₽) had held for more than a week. The pullback on October 12 shows how thin and volatile the retail market is right now: on individual shelves in a city, the price is shaped by local stocks and retail chain promotions rather than by the national balance.
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The geography of the day confirms this. The decline was not limited to Yekaterinburg: Kemerovo lost 8.8 ₽ against its previous measurement, Volgograd 3.45 ₽, Ivanovo 2.5 ₽. At the same time, Oryol gained 2 ₽, Bryansk 1 ₽, and Chelyabinsk and Izhevsk 0.5 ₽ each. The picture is fragmented: the measurement does not show a general downward turn across the country, it shows local peaks shifting.
A separate caveat concerns the median. The 40.2 ₽/kg of October 12 and the 48.45 ₽/kg of October 11 are based on different sets of cities (10 and 7 respectively), randomly selected from 51. A direct comparison along the lines of “the median fell by 8 ₽” would be inaccurate: part of the effect comes from the change in the sample. The working tools here are the dynamics within a single city and Rosstat’s weekly series, which still lags: according to data as of October 5, the average price in Russia had been falling for the fourth week in a row.
What to watch next
The first question for the coming days is whether Yekaterinburg holds the 46 ₽/kg level, or whether the jump on October 11 and the drop on October 12 were movements around a promotion by a large chain (the city sample includes three or more chains). The second is whether purchase prices will follow retail: for commercial farms finishing the harvest, retail volatility is still an indirect signal, but a sustained weekly rise in medians across large cities would be an argument for entering the market later. The third is Rosstat’s dynamics: the weekly decline of ▼1.17 ₽ does not yet confirm the upward retail turn recorded by the measurements of October 11.
Sources: daily retail price measurement by potatoway.ru (12.10.2026, 10 cities out of 51, Magnit, METRO and VkusVill chains) · Rosstat, average price in Russia as of 5.10.2026 · potatoway measurements for 10–11.10.2026.
