Smoked Sausage Was a Scarce Item in Soviet-Era Latvian Shops

The opening of a feature in the lifestyle and food section of LSM, Latvia's public media outlet, looks back at food shortages in Soviet-era Latvia. The article is titled "Did you know how sweet sausage came about?" and begins with a look at eating habits of forty years ago.

The outlet asks readers to imagine a potluck evening, where each guest brings part of the meal, hosted by a housewife four decades ago. She would most likely assign specific products to every guest in advance, and one guest might be asked to bring smoked sausage.

A scarce product

Today, such a request seems hard to understand. It would not even occur to people now that in Soviet Latvia smoked sausage could not actually be bought in a shop, because it was in short supply. Anyone wanting it had to obtain it some other way.

Smoked sausage was not the only product missing from shop shelves. Salmon and sprats were also scarce, as were fruit compotes made in Bulgaria. These examples show that shortages affected fish products and meat products as well as preserved fruit imported from other countries of the Soviet bloc.

Judging by its headline, the article then turns to the origins of sweet sausage. The excerpt available here does not explain that topic further.