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Volga Baikal AGRO News Update on Russian Agriculture: Work Meeting with Dmitry Patrushev, Minister of Agriculture !!!
Vladimir Putin had a working meeting with the Minister of Agriculture Dmitry Patrushev. The head of the Ministry of Agriculture reported to the President on the results of the work in 2020 and plans for the development of the industry in 2021.
The meeting shows a clear commitment to the Russian Agriculture, some great inside Information and positive plans for future development of the agricultural branch in the Russian Federation.
Dmitry Patrushev: Last year, despite the objective difficulties, the agro-industrial complex worked quite stably, and today we also continue to implement the previously set tasks.
Crop production: in net weight, farmers collected 133.5 million tons of grain in 2020. This is 12 %more than the five-year average.
This is, on the one hand, due to the favorable weather conditions. On the other hand, the work of all farmers was properly organized.
As for the plans for the current season: monitoring of the state of winter crops continues, we have sown 19.4 million hectares. In good and satisfactory condition is 80 %. This is worse than last year, we had very little moisture in the fall, but the situation is improving. I hope that we will reach the planned performance.
The sowing campaign has already begun in the North Caucasus, Central and Southern Federal Districts. This year, the sown area will grow by 600 thousand hectares. About 51.5 million hectares will be allocated for spring crops. Therefore, there are all the prerequisites for the implementation of the plan.
In 2021, we plan to increase the acreage for sunflower and sugar beet.
To date, farmers have 938 thousand units of equipment available. In 2020, we purchased about 59 thousand units. The forecast for the acquisition for 2021 is about 62.8 thousand units of equipment.
The situation is somewhat worse with mineral fertilizers. Last year, the price increased from 10 % to 41 % for various components. This year, prices also continue to rise. Our priority task is to provide farmers with the full amount of mineral fertilizers for the sowing campaign. No shortage of fertilizers is predicted. The amount of applied fertilizers increases every year. In 2021, it will most likely be 55 kg / ha. This is higher than last year. It should be noted that the scientifically justified volume of applied fertilizers is 80 kg / ha. Most likely, we will reach this indicator by 2025. This will help to increase the profitability of agricultural organizations, increase the marketable mass of products, which is of paramount importance for us.
Increasing the marketable mass of products in general is a strategic goal of the entire agro-industrial complex, and one of the main, most important tools is the introduction of unused agricultural land. We hope to introduce an additional 13.2 million hectares of agricultural land in 2021. In addition, we expect to reduce the wear and tear of irrigation systems from 78 % up to 30 %.
In general, the index of production of the agro-industrial complex was 102.5 %. This figure is made up of the agricultural production index, the food production index and the beverage production index.
Profitability of agricultural organizations: taking into account subsidies, it is expected to reach 18 %, excluding subsidies-at the level of 14 %. This is higher than in 2020. The share of unprofitable organizations is reduced annually due to the modernization of production and increasing its transparency, and at the end of last year it was at the level of 11.5 %. The goal for 2021 is to maintain this trend.
The situation on seeds: unfortunately, the level that we need to achieve under the food security doctrine has not been reached. The benchmark is set at 75 %, we are still at 65 %. The law on seed production, which is currently being considered, will help the development of the domestic market of high-quality seeds.
Agricultural science: we have already made some progress in breeding, and two subprograms have been approved: for potatoes and sugar beet. For sugar beet, we have our own seeds. New domestic varieties and hybrids are not just not inferior to the products of foreign selection, on the contrary, they are more suitable for our lands, for our natural and climatic conditions.
In 2021, work on the subprograms on oilseeds and wine production will be completed. At the stage of working out the program for corn, vegetable crops and horticulture. We will accelerate and try to complete the work on the programs as soon as possible.
Export: The development of export potential is extremely important. Now it is important not to miss the already won strong position. The volume of foreign trade in 2020 increased by almost 20 % and amounted to $ 30.7 billion. I would like to highlight that it happened for the first time in 2020 when the Russian agricultural exports exceeded imports. We have become net food exporters. This is generally the first time, this was not the case either in the Soviet Union or in the new Russia.
The stable development and constant support of the agro-industrial complex by the Government allows us to systematically move away exclusively from grain exports and strengthen other areas with higher added value. In 2020, for example, a significant increase was achieved in the export of fish and fish products. In 2020, the right to supply 38 types of products to 24 more countries was obtained. In addition, we are expanding the geography of deliveries for niche products. For example, we supply domestic ice cream to 35 countries, and Russian honey to 29. And we have more and more such examples every year.
Support for the export of agricultural products: We understand that the balance between the state and business is very important, and we also understand that at some point in 2020, certain types of export support turned out to be excessive. We have adjusted our approaches, however, in order to stabilize the market situation, from January 1, 2021, the provision of compensation for part of the transportation costs for the export of products such as sugar, potatoes, buckwheat, bottled sunflower oil and grain has been suspended.
