MOSCOW, June 6. /TASS/. /TASS/. The current restrictions on exports of key food products will stay in place in Russia to protect the domestic market from price rises, The Financial Times quoted Russian Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov as saying on Sunday.

According to the minister, export curbs, which he called a price "shock absorber," are meant to encourage domestic manufacturers to invest more in the production. "This is one of our sources of growth by adding new value chains — grain moves animal husbandry forward, animal husbandry moves milk forward, and so on," he said.

Earlier, the Russian government imposed a temporary ban on exports of buckwheat for a period from June 5 to August 31 to ensure the country’s food security.

Russia’s government is looking at measures of support to its food exports and ways to control price growth on the domestic market, the minister added.

According to the newspaper, Reshetnikov said that Russia, one of the world’s biggest grain exporters, was considering ways of supporting its food exports and protecting the domestic market from rising prices.

Thus, the Russian minister noted that Russia may expand export control measures to include direct export curbs and "flexible export duties" on a number of goods if prices continued to go up. As for the domestic market, Russia has cancelled most of price restrictions but will continue to subsidize manufacturers of a number of key food products, such as bread and flour, Reshetnikov said.