July 16, 2012

Russia to expand agricultural products export

Apart from focusing on grain, Russia needs to diversify the range of exported agricultural products and boost supplies of high value added goods, the Agriculture Minister Nikolai Fyodorov said Friday (July 13).

"We should not simply export grain, which almost qualifies as a raw material. Instead we need to diversify the exports with high added value products. This is key to the competitiveness of local products in the domestic market, as well as the Customs Union (Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus) and the World Trade Organisation," he said adding that the ministry has already included these ideas into the agricultural development plan for 2013-20.

Fyodorov said that the industry has grown significantly thanks to state support and private investments. Several years ago, the processing capacities were excessive, whereas now some regions lack facilities to produce sugar, meat products, oil, and cheese.

"Our idea is to keep increasing production capacities and boost processing. We also need to develop logistics and infrastructure of the food market, so that Russian citizens purchase domestic and quality products," Fyodorov said.

Fyodorov added that the aggregated investment portfolio into the sector stood at RUB1.6 trillion (US$49.1 billion) as of July.