March 21, 2011

Russian government mulls US$440-million fund to poultry, pig firms

The Russian government is thinking of allocating RUB12.5 billion (US$439.38 million) from the 2011 federal budget to support poultry and pig breeding businesses, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Friday (Mar 18).

Putin instructed the Finance Ministry to develop procedures to subsidise the companies with those funds within 10 days.

Meanwhile, Russia imported 33,600 tonnes of pork in January, 59.3% more than in the same month of 2010, the federal statistics service reported Friday.

The statistics service said pork imports in January dropped by 46% compared with December 2010.

Poultry imports in January totalled 14,200 tonnes, 40.9% less than in January 2010. The amount of poultry imported in January was only 7% of the amount imported in December 2010, according to the statistics service's figures.