I can understand the differences between the soviet republics, having visited them all except Moldova ( visiting in May) and Belarus ( whenever I can)

Impressive!

I can understand the differences between the soviet republics

When they were united as the USSR, there were big differences between them too. In Tula in Soviet Russia, food in stores was completely different - diverse milk products, different types of bread and pastry, we had not much in stores in Sukhumi but, at the farmers' market, we had goods from villages including fruits, veggies, mozarella (suluguni), smoked meat, yogurt (matsoni), etc. While fruits were a treasure in Russia.

We used to send parcels with food from Georgia to Russia, to our relatives, and received some cool food from them by post too, lol. And now we have almost the same food worldwide.