From the humble Snickers bar to the prestigious Mercedes Benz, Russia's consumers -- rich and poor alike -- are buying more imported products than ever before, a new market report shows.


Amid the wreckage left by the post-communist collapse of Russia's domestic industry, a booming consumer market has sprung up in which imports have carved out a 40 percent share, according to "Distribution of Imported Goods in Russia," a report published by the market research group Business Analytica.


The influx of goods from abroad has been spearheaded by private importers, who have moved in on an area that used to be a state-controlled monopoly to account for 85 percent of imports.


Meanwhile, Russia's own consumer goods industry shows few signs of recovery, declining a further 28 percent on the year to August. Heavily reliant on imported inputs it can no longer afford, the goods it turns out are frequently of poor quality that few would choose to buy.


And after an initial rush of inexpensive, shoddy commodities onto the market after the liberalization of trade in 1992, the Russian consumer is becoming more discerning.


"People are getting fed up with the cheap stuff," says Andrei Sterlin, managing director of Business Analytica. "This creates very good prospects for West European and U.S. producers."


Behind the rise of the new Russian consumer is an increase in real incomes of some 80 percent since prices were freed in January 1992.


This overall rise in purchasing power, however, disguises the sharp polarization of society since the fall of communism, where the top 10 percent of the population now have incomes 12.7 times higher than the poorest 10 percent and can afford to indulge their new-found tastes.


But whatever their income, few Russians now find purchasing imported food beyond their means. Food imports accounted for 45 percent ($5.5 billion) of total consumer goods imports in 1993, according to the Foreign Trade Ministry.


Foreign producers now occupy 35 percent of the country's food market, with Germany, Holland and France at their head. This figure rises to a staggering 70 percent of food bought in Moscow and St. Petersburg.


Russian consumers do not always buy foreign products out of preference, but due to a shortage of Russian-made equivalents.


The report, for example, shows that while most Russians like Western sausage and fish, they would rather eat domestically produced cheese, butter and poultry. But in the year to September, imports of poultry increased sixfold, and butter imports doubled.


A lean harvest means Russia will likely have to import more staple products like grain, sugar, potatoes and vegetable oil, according to a Business Analytica forecast. All this comes despite a deterioration in the situation for importers since July, when customs duties that average 15 percent were extended to nearly all foodstuffs.


Yet while food imports continue to provide good returns, profit margins on more conspicuous forms of Western consumerism -- cars, alcohol and cigarettes -- have been squeezed by the introduction of excise and value-added taxes last year. Cumulative taxes, transport and other costs increase the price tag on a new Jeep Cherokee, for example, from $20,000 in the United States to a prohibitive $55,000 in a Russian showroom.


Prices of most imported products, however, have remained competitive as many importers resort to smuggling to avoid prohibitive taxes, Sterlin said. Some 80 percent of imported cars are sold on the black market, according to State Traffic Police estimates.


"It is hardly any secret that smuggling is one of the key price-forming factors for such products as cheap alcohol, beer and cigarettes," the report says. "Traders continue to negotiate contracts via all kinds of charitable foundations, abuse provisions for transit through CIS countries and, finally, bribe customs officials to avoid ruinous taxes and duties."


Small importers who take shopping trips to countries offering cheap goods like China, Turkey, Poland, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates account for a large share of tax-free imports, according to the report.


Business Analytica estimates that "shuttle" imports like these account for up to 70 percent of cheap imported clothing in Russia plus about 30 percent of audio-video equipment.


"It is a whole industry operating outside the framework of normal foreign trade turnover, without bringing any profit to the national budget and virtually beyond the scope of customs statistics," the report says.


New rules that came into effect in February have sought to curb this trend by reducing the duty-free limit on goods brought into Russia from $5,000 to $2,000.


But while things are getting tough for some importers, opportunities are opening up for others, says the report, which includes a directory of trading companies, foreign firms, insurance companies, customs posts and warehouses.


A boom in computer sales is on the horizon, as owners of Russia's 1.5 to 2.5 million personal computers, many of which were bought four to five years ago, update with newer models.


The consumer electronics market is seen as a prime target for further imports. In autumn 1993, half of 76 cities surveyed had no vacuum cleaners or microwaves on sale, and one in three had no color television sets in their stores. As a result, consumer durables increased as a share of total imports from 4 percent to 16 percent last year.


Other growth areas tipped by the report are clothes, footwear, furniture and pharmaceuticals. Most imported clothes are either of cheap quality or exorbitantly priced, and there exists a large gap in the market for good quality, reasonably priced clothes.


If Western companies are to take advantage of the opportunities currently offered by the Russian market, however, the report says they must conduct thorough research and develop an appropriate marketing strategy.


"Foreign exporters often lack a strategic approach in choosing the routes and scale of exports, and fail to take proper account of the specific features of the Russian economy," the report says.