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Share of migrants in retail alcohol trade to decrease to 15 percent

MOSCOW, January 4 (Itar-Tass) - The share of foreigners engaged in retail alcohol trade in Russia is to decrease from 25 percent to 15 percent this year, in line with the resolution with came into force on January 1, 2014.

Under the document, the quota for migrants' labor in sports is set at 25 percent. Zero quota will keep for pharmacies, kiosks and markets. Russia first introduced quotas for migrants' labor in 2007. In 2011, the permissible quota in retail trade was reduced to zero, but in 2012, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered to raise it to 25 percent for sellers of alcoholic beverages.

The new phase of restrictions was announced by President Vladimir Putin in early October 2013, as he proposed to reduce foreign labor in retail trade.

Labor Ministry officials who drew the document told Itar-Tass that labor quotas would not impact the public catering system in general, but experts said reducing the migrants' quota to 15 percent would certainly affect a majority of restaurants, bars and cafes, as the share of alcohol-free fast food outlets in Russia is small, keeping at some 10 percent.

"Taking into account the fact that some media reported a possible zeroing of this quota from 2015, public catering will actually face a choice: they will either hire foreigners or start offering alcoholic beverages to customers," the experts said.
Hence, the problem of migrants quota might impact the whole public catering, whose turnover was estimated at 1.014 trillion roubles in 2012 /with annual growth of 6.3 percent/, they said.

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