- Agriculture has been arguably a flagship of the Russian national economy over the past 15 years
- Russian agricultural production has increased by over 4% in 2016
- Higher sales in the agricultural sector has stimulated demand for agricultural machinery
- Russia has demonstrated its ability to tackle the issues of food safety and has significantly boosted export potential
- Russia has thrived in the face of western sanctions, finding new target markets to export it’s agricultural produce
- Russia still has a dependence on foreign technologies despite large-scale import substitution and export expansion. However it is now taking steps to address these concerns
- Russia has domestically produced foodstuffs worth nearly $4 billion under the import substitution program
- Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has set the task of boosting exports of Russia’s agricultural products from $17 to $19 bln
- The primary objective of the Russian government is to ensure they produce sufficient agricultural produce to feed themselves, wherever that is at all possible
- They wish to create an environment for Russian companies to do business in international markets
- The development of a broad range of state instruments of financial and non-financial support for non-resource exports
- The development of a specific program of export crediting, the formation of export infrastructure including industrial zones, trade houses abroad and logistics facilities inside the country
- Future participation in international exhibitions in close cooperation with development institutions of leading agricultural associations
- Focus on the regulatory environment by lifting barriers and optimising procedures related to obtaining documents on international trade supplies, confirming zero rates, VAT refund and customs and tariff operations
- The systematic state aid and efficient management in the agricultural sector, as well as searching for new growth areas, such as new market channels and technological independence
- The development of crucial factors for maintaining and increasing growth rates in local agriculture
- An aggressive external policy on acquiring shares and even whole companies that are the agro-technical leaders in the global market which will speed up the formation of a national technological base in this area
- The successful accumulation of human and investment resources for carrying out research in cutting-edge areas
- Integration of technologies e.g. Japanese centres of excellence and Brazilian corporation in agricultural research
- The transition of brand new technologies to real growth sectors in agriculture
impressive; do you think we can ever catch up..? grin