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SERGIEVSKIY, Russia, June 10 (Reuters) - At a farm near Moscow, newly arrived guest workers from India are planting potatoes and cabbages - work closely monitored by central bank analysts as they prepare for board meetings to set interest rates.

While in developed economies such as the United States food accounts for about 14% of the basket used to calculate inflation, in Russia it makes up a hefty 40% or so, and surging prices for potatoes and other staples have been a major reason for its tight monetary policy.

The central bank trimmed its benchmark rate to 20% on June 6 but even that is around the highest since 2003. More worryingly, people's inflationary expectations - a driver for price pressures - remain high despite actual inflation slowing down.

Potato prices, which have tripled since last year when the crop fell by 12%, are not helping matters.

"It is crazy. Potatoes have always been very cheap. At this price, I will not buy them - I think few people will," said Tamara, a 67-year-old pensioner outside a Pyaterochka discount store in Moscow.

Central bank governor Elvira Nabiullina acknowledged the problem in her press conference after the rate cut.

"On a daily basis, people are not buying smartphones and television sets," she said. "They are buying food. If prices there are growing faster, it forms high inflationary expectations."

Russian households spent almost 35% of income on food in April, a record in five years of data and up from 29% last April, a study by the Romir think tank showed.

Pyaterochka sells Russian old crop potatoes for 84 roubles ($1.06) per kilo and new crop potatoes for 120 ($1.53) per kilo, compared with an average 43 roubles per kilo in retail stores this time last year. That is even higher than the roughly $0.92 per kilo charged in Britain's biggest supermarket chain Tesco.

Prices for onions, cabbage, beets, carrots and other ingredients of beetroot soup, a popular dish across Eastern Europe often used to gauge food inflation, have also surged.

The crisis even caught out President Vladimir Putin, who has been touting Russia's agricultural development and growing exports despite Western sanctions as a success story, despite similar spikes in butter and egg prices earlier this year.

The government has responded by boosting imports. Egypt has tripled potato supplies to Russia, while Belarus, Russia's backup potato supplier, said it had run out of stocks.