OREANDA-NEWS. March 18, 2013. Moscow Arbitration Court pronounced legitimacy of the decision of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) regarding the Agriculture and Food Products Committee of the Bryansk region.

On 5th July 2012, the FAS Commission found that actions of the Agriculture and Food Products Committee of the Bryansk region restricted competition on the market of beef cattle breeding in the region.

The FAS Commission established that in 2011 the Agriculture and Food Products Committee of the Bryansk region introduced amendments to the procedures for granting subsidies to agricultural product producers, peasant (farm) enterprises under a long-term target programme for “Developing Beef Cattle Breeding in the Bryansk Region” (2009-2012). It resulted in changing criteria for selecting programme participants and considerably reducing the number of participants (from 60 to 13), which also means restricting completion.

“The objective of the Federal Antimonopoly Service in undertaking measures of domestic support of agricultural producers is observing equal opportunities for all agricultural producers for taking part in state support programmes. In other words, the mechanisms for subsidizing agricultural producers must be devised in strict compliance with the Law on protection of competition. The Court confirmed it”, pointed Anna Mirochinenko, the Head of FAS Department for Control over Chemical Industry and Agro-Industrial Complex.

The Arbitration Court heard the case against the Agriculture and Food Products Committee of the Bryansk region on 6th March 2013.