Agricultural sector

By 2020, Russia may fully provide itself with fruit and veg of own production, said Alexander Tkachev, Russian Agriculture Minister, at a meeting of G20 agriculture ministers in China. The Russian Federation, according to him, will only import citrus and exotic fruits that cannot be grown in the country.

Alexander Tkachev informed his colleagues that in recent years, due to state support, the Russian agricultural sector has achieved great results. Last year, for the first time, the volumes of agricultural production in Russia exceeded $76 billion, which is 17% more than the previous year.

Last year, Russia exported agricultural products and foodstuffs for more than $16 billion, which is 5 times more than 10 years ago.

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Alexander Tkachev was appointed new Russian agricultural minister. Tkachev is to strengthen food production after Russia reacted to Western sanctions by banning food imports from the EU and US.

“We need to fill our market with our own products, the products of domestic producers, and we need to do it quickly, to ease pressure on the food market, decrease prices and so on,” Putin said at a meeting announcing Tkachev’s appointment. The 54-year-old minister replaces Nikolai Fyodorov, who was being moved to an advisory role in the Kremlin.

Russia banned Western food imports until August 2015 after the European Union and United States accused it of supporting separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine and subsequently imposed sanctions.

Putin said the food ban was a good opportunity to improve Russia’s agricultural industry. However, domestic producers had neither the capacity nor the right quality to replace food from abroad. This caused an increase in food prices.

Moscow is now pinning its hopes on Tkachev, who has been serving as the governor of Krasnodar since 2001. The region produces nearly 12 million tons of wheat every year, contributing more than 10 percent to Russia’s wheat exports.

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