OREANDA-NEWS. On 19 June 2009 was announced, that within the World Grain Forum which took place in St. Petersburg, Russian President D. Medvedev held a meeting with representatives of the national agricultural industry. 18 participants of the discussion included Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov, Minister of Agriculture Yelena Skrynnik, other senior officials and the key figures of Russian and international agricultural business. Andrey Igoshin, Chairman of major grain processing company PAVA, was among the attendees of the meeting.

The main topics raised during the discussion were related to managing global grain reserves in response to crises challenges, innovative development of the agroindustrial sector and government support of exporting companies, most importantly – those engaged in the grain processing business.

With today’s globalization of trade and highly competitive environment of the Russian milling sector, there is a critical need for the proper system of export incentives. Introduction of export subsidies, lowering transportation cost of finished products, and partial replacement of grain with flour in food aid shipments were named as the most essential measures.

“The percentage of flour exported from Russia is negligible compared to our major international competitors”, comments Andrey Igoshin, Head of the leading Russian flour exporter. ” Meanwhile, the potential here is extremely high – export of value added products is more advantageous for economy than grain shipments; moreover, domestic milling sector is still operating 30-40% under capacity. It is a very positive sign that the Government has turned to the issue of export support. It allows to hope that a considered, complex programme will be worked out in the near future”.

PAVA, which currently implements two large-scale projects for acquisition and cultivation of agricultural land and deep wheat processing, is at the forefront of the development of national agriculture. “Soon our company plans to enter markets of high value-added wheat products”, said Mr Igoshin. “Part of the output will be supplied on the global market, and we expect to continue co-operation with local and federal government on improving our export competitiveness”.