Food Follies: Snatch the Eggs, Save the Sour Cream

Source: Author’s Facebook page

When you hear the optimistic forecasts of our food strategists, you can’t help but think of the Belarusian purveyor, for whom even the sun doesn’t rise over the country without personal permission.

His sacramental declaration, “Take the eggs—the sour cream is gone,” today might as well serve as the official slogan for the Ukrainian consumer basket.

The All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council, without resorting to humor or irony, warns bluntly: Food prices are likely to keep increasing over the next few months. Not surprising, not sudden—just steady and predictable increases.

The reasons are entirely grounded in reality: Russian shelling, energy shortages, and logistical failures. Added to this is the fall in the hryvnia exchange rate, which automatically makes any product with an imported component more expensive. And there are more such products on the market than we used to admit publicly.

Eggs are drawing particular attention. Forecasts indicate they could see record price increases in January–February 2026, with prices expected to rise by around 10% in just two months.

Eggs had seen a 10.8% price increase over the course of 2025. Moreover, the most rapid month-to-month growth occurred at the end of the year:

• October – +11% month-on-month

• November – +12.6%

• December – +5.6%

The rise in egg prices in Ukraine is outpacing incomes, economic stability, and trust in official forecasts.

Vegetables are not far behind. After a seasonal decline during the summer, prices have been rising again since October. The monthly increases were as follows:

• October – +10.4%

• November – +4.6%

• December – +0.8%

A key factor here is the weakening of the hryvnia, which quickly translates the cost of imported components into higher shelf prices.

Even bread—a product traditionally considered socially sensitive—has not escaped the trend. Prices are expected to rise by 1.5–2% per month. Over the course of 2025, bread prices increased by 13.5%. From October to December, prices rose steadily by 0.8–1.3% per month, with January as the only exception, when prices surged 2.1%.

As a result, we see a classic picture: war, inflation, energy risks—and consumers increasingly view price tags not just as economic indicators but as a form of psychological pressure.

The advice for the coming months is simple and familiar:
Grab your eggs. In other words, clear the basics off the shelves.
Not for laughs.

And to check whether everything else has disappeared along with the sour cream, from purchasing power to the feeling that anyone is actually managing this process.

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