UPDATE: Russia not to extend food deals, watchdog starts checks

(updates headline, paragraphs 1, 3)

MOSCOW, Mar 1 (PRIME) -- There is no need to prolong the price regulation deal for sugar and sunflower seed oil, Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Viktor Yevtukhov told reporters on Monday, while the Federal Antimonopoly Service started checks of chicken meat and egg producers for probable antimonopoly law violations.

"There is a month left of (the current agreements’) being in force, and in the future we do not want to intervene too strongly in the market relations in this area or expand the range of goods subject to them," Yevtukhov said.

The antitrust statement read,"The Federal Antimonopoly Service has received an order from (First Deputy Prime Minister) Andrei Removich Belousov and has started checks of chicken meat and egg producers for compliance with the requirements of antimonopoly legislation."

The government signed agreements with sugar and oil producers in December, limiting prices at 46 rubles per kilogram of sugar and 110 rubles per liter of sunflower oil in retail trade, correspondingly. The agreements will remain in force until April.

(74.4373 rubles – U.S. $1)

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