The Ministry intends to maximise the competitiveness of the Russian agricultural sector before and after entering the World Trade Organization (WTO), she added.
Skrynnik emphasised that entering into the WTO was a principal issue for Russia’s livestock and agriculture industry. “To increase the competitiveness of the industry we are going to increase state support up to $9bn per year in 2012 and 2013. This will be 1.5 times more than was originally planned for 2012,” she said.
Skrynnik said that the Ministry of Agriculture will take all the necessary measures to increase the investment attractiveness of the meat industry and increase the volume of production in the coming years.
The Ministry has created a special development programme for the Russian meat industry until 2020 and expects meat production to increase 23%, or around 1.8 million tonnes (t), on 2011 levels in that period. The Ministry has also allocated RUB120bn (US$4.13bn) for subsidising the interest rate, Skrynnik said.
Production growth
According to data from the Ministry, the growth rate of meat production in Russia between 2006 and 2011 was 36%. During this period the industry attracted RUB576bn (US$19.86bn) in investment loans.
In 2011, Russia increased its meat production volume by 4.7% or 333,000t compared with 2010, up to 7.5 million tonnes (mt). The highest growth rate of about 10.6% was seen in the poultry sector. In 2011, the country produced 3.2mt of poultry which was 300,000t more than in 2010.
Pork production increased more than 100,000t or 4.6% to the level of 2.4mt. At the same time the volume of beef production for the last two years decreased by 8.5%. During that period, the average price for beef also increased by 30%, and reached the level of RUB335/kg (US$11.50). Skrynnik said that one of the main tasks of the Ministry for the coming years would be to stabilise the levels of beef production in the country and prevent further decline.
The minister also pointed out that, according to preliminary forecasts by 2020, Russia may increase meat export volume by 60 times compared with the level of 2010 and by 30 times compared with the level of 2011 to 600,000t. She said that the export of poultry meat in 2020 will reach the mark of 400,000t and the export of pork will reach 200,000t. Currently Russia only exports 20,000t of meat.