The move is a concession to farmers, who have been withholding grain from the state in an effort to force prices higher.
Leonid Cheshinsky, chairman of the Russian Committee on Bread, said at a press conference that President Boris Yeltsin would sign a decree Friday increasing the price the state pays for a ton of grain from 10, 000 to 12, 000 rubles ($62-$75 at the current exchange rate).
The decree will also change the quotas that grain-producing regions must still theoretically supply to the state, allowing some regions to hold on to more of their harvest and increasing quotas for others.
"It is rather difficult for us to talk about feeding an area that can be self-sufficient", Cheshinsky said.
There "will be no hunger" in Russia this winter, he said, adding, "We have a surplus of bread. Any shortages are not because there is no bread, but because of distribution problems".
The higher grain price could, however, push up the price of a loaf of bread about 36 percent, to about 34 rubles per kilogram from its present 25 rubles.
The state will also subsidize some of the increased grain price to bread
producers, Cheshinsky said, which could cost the government about 50 billion rubles annually.
Vice President Alexander Rutskoi, Russia's top official in charge of agriculture, has said that paying a higher price for grain is still cheaper than importing it.
Russia imported about 20 million tons of grain last year. Beset with transportation problems and a shortage of rainfall, Russia's harvest was about two weeks behind schedule at the end of July.
But the total yearly harvest, between 92 and 96 million tons, is still expected to be above 1991.
7: 30 and 10: 30 P. M. Jazz Club on a riverboat, departure
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