MOSCOW. Jan 10 (Interfax) - For the Russian agriculture industry, 2011 was a year for overcoming the consequences of the 2010 drought, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov said.
"But the battles for the harvest have remained in the past and now joint work between the government and agriculture producers is progressing at a stable rate," Zubkov told Interfax.
Over the past years the government has created and implemented mechanisms enabling steady growth of production even in difficult weather conditions, he said. The challenge in 2012 is to use these as efficiently as possible.
"We still need to resolve many issues, especially in terms of food market infrastructure, accelerating deliveries and high yields and rich catches to the Russian table," Zubkov said. The quality of governance in the industry needs to be raised, he added.
There are pros and risks for the agriculture sector when Russia joins the WTO, but there is still time to minimize those risks, he said.
FIRSTS
Many things happened for the first time in the industry in 2011.
"Gross agriculture production growth in the 11 months was 22%, we have never had such indicators," Zubkov said.
The sugarbeet harvest reached 47 million tonnes for the first time. The rapeseed, sunflower and soya harvests were unprecedented compared to past harvests.
"As a result for the first time in the past 20 years we will have the lowest food inflation - 4.1%-4.2%," the first deputy prime minister said.
In the meat and dairy industry there were also various firsts. "Most importantly, perhaps, was that for the first time since 1990 not only did the number of cows stop falling it increased," Zubkov said. There was a 0.6% increase over the 11 months.
The share of domestic products on the food market neared 60% in 2011, he said. "Over the past five years we have doubled poultry production, upped pork production 50% and began to restore beef cattle, which had until recently virtually been inexistent," he said.
Products from the fishing complex, for which the first deputy prime minister is also responsible for, also began to appear more and more at the Russian dinner table.
THURSDAY IS NOT THE ONLY FISH DAY
The share of imports on the Russian fish market dropped to almost 14% in 2011, Zubkov said. "Fish consumption during this time increased by 1 kilogram to 22 kilograms per head in the year, which means domestic production is gradually squeezing out foreign production," he said.
Much has been done recently in the industry for business to progress calmly with clear perspectives, Zubkov said. Bioresource quotas are now distributed for 10 years and for fishing areas - 20 years.
"As a result catches increase by an average of 300,000 tonnes per year," he said, adding that 4.3 million tonnes of fish were caught in 2011.
Fish consumption could increase to 25-26 kilograms per head in the next few years "as is medically recommended," Zubkov predicts.
Russia's fishing fleet has over the last few years increasingly taken advantage of the reserves of the oceans. "Our vessels work in all areas of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Fishing cooperation deals were signed in 2011 with Senegal, Guinea-Bissau and Namibia," he said. Agreements are planned with Angola and Sierra Leone in the near future.
Commenting on fishing in the Svalbard Archipelago (from May 2011 Zubkov has headed a government commission to ensure Russia's presence on the archipelago), he said a 20-year high of 250,000 tonnes of fish was caught in the region in 2011.
"The building of a fish processing plant in the archipelago is currently under discussion," he said.
AGRICULTURE & TRADE: COMING TOGETHER
The law on trade that came into force in August 2010 had its first full year in 2011 and helped bring together the positions of retail trade and agriculture producers, Zubkov said. "It provided the opportunity for them to listen to each other better and work together on mutually beneficial conditions."
"Simplifying procedures for Russian producers to enter the market helped bring the share of domestic production in retail trade to 57% compared to 55% last year," he said.
Retail trade turnover increased 6.9% in January-November 2011 to 17 trillion rubles. Food product trade increased 3.1% to 8.1 trillion rubles.
The efficiency of the law was most evident at the end of 2010 - beginning of 2011, when the drought had caused a reduction in agriculture production, the deputy prime minister reckons. "In these difficult conditions, it was an important factor in keeping price growth within a reasonable limit and it helped stabilize the finances of agriculture and food producers," he said.
A particularly effective part of the law, Zubkov believes, was the regulation that establishes a deadline for payment of delivered goods and the ban on charging additional bonuses from suppliers lowered the trade mark-up. "Importantly, the law greatly facilitated access for small agriculture businesses to store shelves," he said.
"But, as it turned out, not all participants of the trade process, on both sides of the counter, were ready to implement the law, so fines were imposed in early 2011 of up to 5 million rubles for breaching the law," he said.
FAS opened 65 cases involving administrative breach of the law in January-November 2011, he added.
TASKS FOR TOMORROW
Commenting on the tasks for 2012, Zubkov said it would be the last year of the first five-year government agriculture development program. A new program will come into force in 2013 to 2020.
Russia hopes to achieve a harvest of at least the same volume as 2011 (over 93 million tonnes) in 2012, he said. Milk production is expected to grow 5% and its share in overall dairy market resources is to go up by 3 percentage points.
Poultry and pork production should increase by an average of 10%.
Particular importance will be attached to renewal of agriculture machinery and 3.5 billion rubles will be transferred to Rosagroleasing charter capital. "This money will be used to set up special easy terms for acquiring equipment," Zubkov said.
The 2012 federal budget will allocate 130 billion rubles on the measures envisaged in the government program, Zubkov said. The Social Development in the Village program will receive around 8 billion rubles. There are plans to build around 860,000 square meters of housing, over 2,500 kilometers of gas distribution grids and almost 2,000 local water pipes.
Around 6 billion will be allocated to the construction of rural roads in 2012.
MOSCOW. Jan 10 (Interfax) - For the Russian agriculture industry, 2011 was a year for overcoming the consequences of the 2010 drought, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov said.
"But the battles for the harvest have remained in the past and now joint work between the government and agriculture producers is progressing at a stable rate," Zubkov told Interfax.
Over the past years the government has created and implemented mechanisms enabling steady growth of production even in difficult weather conditions, he said. The challenge in 2012 is to use these as efficiently as possible.
"We still need to resolve many issues, especially in terms of food market infrastructure, accelerating deliveries and high yields and rich catches to the Russian table," Zubkov said. The quality of governance in the industry needs to be raised, he added.
There are pros and risks for the agriculture sector when Russia joins the WTO, but there is still time to minimize those risks, he said.
FIRSTS
Many things happened for the first time in the industry in 2011.
"Gross agriculture production growth in the 11 months was 22%, we have never had such indicators," Zubkov said.
The sugarbeet harvest reached 47 million tonnes for the first time. The rapeseed, sunflower and soya harvests were unprecedented compared to past harvests.
"As a result for the first time in the past 20 years we will have the lowest food inflation - 4.1%-4.2%," the first deputy prime minister said.
In the meat and dairy industry there were also various firsts. "Most importantly, perhaps, was that for the first time since 1990 not only did the number of cows stop falling it increased," Zubkov said. There was a 0.6% increase over the 11 months.
The share of domestic products on the food market neared 60% in 2011, he said. "Over the past five years we have doubled poultry production, upped pork production 50% and began to restore beef cattle, which had until recently virtually been inexistent," he said.
Products from the fishing complex, for which the first deputy prime minister is also responsible for, also began to appear more and more at the Russian dinner table.
THURSDAY IS NOT THE ONLY FISH DAY
The share of imports on the Russian fish market dropped to almost 14% in 2011, Zubkov said. "Fish consumption during this time increased by 1 kilogram to 22 kilograms per head in the year, which means domestic production is gradually squeezing out foreign production," he said.
Much has been done recently in the industry for business to progress calmly with clear perspectives, Zubkov said. Bioresource quotas are now distributed for 10 years and for fishing areas - 20 years.
"As a result catches increase by an average of 300,000 tonnes per year," he said, adding that 4.3 million tonnes of fish were caught in 2011.
Fish consumption could increase to 25-26 kilograms per head in the next few years "as is medically recommended," Zubkov predicts.
Russia's fishing fleet has over the last few years increasingly taken advantage of the reserves of the oceans. "Our vessels work in all areas of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Fishing cooperation deals were signed in 2011 with Senegal, Guinea-Bissau and Namibia," he said. Agreements are planned with Angola and Sierra Leone in the near future.
Commenting on fishing in the Svalbard Archipelago (from May 2011 Zubkov has headed a government commission to ensure Russia's presence on the archipelago), he said a 20-year high of 250,000 tonnes of fish was caught in the region in 2011.
"The building of a fish processing plant in the archipelago is currently under discussion," he said.
AGRICULTURE & TRADE: COMING TOGETHER
The law on trade that came into force in August 2010 had its first full year in 2011 and helped bring together the positions of retail trade and agriculture producers, Zubkov said. "It provided the opportunity for them to listen to each other better and work together on mutually beneficial conditions."
"Simplifying procedures for Russian producers to enter the market helped bring the share of domestic production in retail trade to 57% compared to 55% last year," he said.
Retail trade turnover increased 6.9% in January-November 2011 to 17 trillion rubles. Food product trade increased 3.1% to 8.1 trillion rubles.
The efficiency of the law was most evident at the end of 2010 - beginning of 2011, when the drought had caused a reduction in agriculture production, the deputy prime minister reckons. "In these difficult conditions, it was an important factor in keeping price growth within a reasonable limit and it helped stabilize the finances of agriculture and food producers," he said.
A particularly effective part of the law, Zubkov believes, was the regulation that establishes a deadline for payment of delivered goods and the ban on charging additional bonuses from suppliers lowered the trade mark-up. "Importantly, the law greatly facilitated access for small agriculture businesses to store shelves," he said.
"But, as it turned out, not all participants of the trade process, on both sides of the counter, were ready to implement the law, so fines were imposed in early 2011 of up to 5 million rubles for breaching the law," he said.
FAS opened 65 cases involving administrative breach of the law in January-November 2011, he added.
TASKS FOR TOMORROW
Commenting on the tasks for 2012, Zubkov said it would be the last year of the first five-year government agriculture development program. A new program will come into force in 2013 to 2020.
Russia hopes to achieve a harvest of at least the same volume as 2011 (over 93 million tonnes) in 2012, he said. Milk production is expected to grow 5% and its share in overall dairy market resources is to go up by 3 percentage points.
Poultry and pork production should increase by an average of 10%.
Particular importance will be attached to renewal of agriculture machinery and 3.5 billion rubles will be transferred to Rosagroleasing charter capital. "This money will be used to set up special easy terms for acquiring equipment," Zubkov said.
The 2012 federal budget will allocate 130 billion rubles on the measures envisaged in the government program, Zubkov said. The Social Development in the Village program will receive around 8 billion rubles. There are plans to build around 860,000 square meters of housing, over 2,500 kilometers of gas distribution grids and almost 2,000 local water pipes.
Around 6 billion will be allocated to the construction of rural roads in 2012.