MOSCOW, Feb 17 (Reuters) - The humble cucumber, a favourite in Russian salads and meals, is the latest staple to suddenly skyrocket in price, angering consumers and stirring up politicians and regulators keen to tamp down any popular discontent at a time of war.
Official statistics show cucumbers have doubled in price since December to reach an average of just over 300 roubles ($3.91) per kilogram and social media has been flooded with images of them sometimes being sold for more than twice or triple that.
Under pressure from politicians - including those from the ruling United Russia party who face parliamentary elections later this year - the anti-monopoly regulator has written to producers and retailers asking them to explain the price hikes.
"This winter, a new 'delicacy' has appeared in our shops – cucumbers," said Sergei Mironov, parliamentary leader of the Just Russia party, noting that the Ministry of Agriculture had blamed the sharp cucumber price hikes on seasonality.
"They used the same explanation for last year's 'golden' potatoes, and now it's 'gilded' cucumbers," said Mironov, a former paratrooper turned politician who often highlights sensitive issues which are angering voters on the ground across the world's largest country.
"What are people supposed to do? Just accept that they can't afford the most basic foods?" he asked.
Producers have reassured consumers that prices for cucumbers are likely to ease next month when the weather gets warmer. Authorities have resolved similar price issues for other foods in the past, and there are no signs that people's grumbling about the price rises - amplified by social media - poses a threat to social stability.
But the sudden cucumber price hike coincides with an increase in overall prices of 2.1% since the start of the year - in part as a result of an increase in value-added tax - and comes as people fret about rising costs at a time when Russia's economy is slowing after four years of war in Ukraine.
'GOLDEN CUCUMBERS'
With the central bank forecasting annual inflation of up to 5.5% this year, people are also complaining about rising utility bills, petrol costs, supermarket prices and restaurant bills.
With cucumber prices now exceeding those of imported fruit like bananas, some supermarkets in Siberia are limiting the quantity that any one shopper can buy and one of Russia's best-selling newspapers has given its readers seeds to grow their own at home.
Mironov's party and the communist party, both of which have seats in the Duma, the lower house of parliament - have suggested that the government cap the mark-up retailers can charge on basic foodstuffs.
Yevgeny Popov, a lawmaker from the ruling party, tried to play down the problem on social media, saying cucumber prices would fall and Russia was completely self-sufficient in the product.
He was quickly rebuked by some of his followers.
"The prices for cucumbers and tomatoes are outrageous," wrote back one woman who gave her name as Svetlana. "Once upon a time they said eggs were 'golden' (because they were so expensive.) Now it's cucumbers that are golden".
($1 = 76.7000 roubles)
(Reporting by Andrew OsbornEditing by Alexandra Hudson)
