OREANDA-NEWS. Dmitry Medvedev: Good afternoon to all those present here and to those on a video linkup. This meeting was planned in advance. We are focusing on one of the key current agricultural problems, regarding additional measures for supporting livestock farming. If you remember, we have already held two video conferences this year: one on the grain market, and the other on the spring sowing campaign in February and March. Today, as we agreed, we will talk about the support for livestock farming. (This idea actually came out of one of the video conferences.)

It’d clear that one of our concerns today is Russia’s food safety. Now we have every chance to ensure proper standards, unlike during the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. We are talking about the current situation in the agro-industrial sector. Gross domestic product growth is, in many aspects, connected with agriculture. On the other hand, the processes that happen in livestock farming influence the inflation rate, which is also a well-known fact. And thirdly, in previous years we achieved quite good results, and today in the context of our joining the WTO we have no right to lose them or weaken them somehow.

During the implementation of the agriculture development programme in 2008 – 2012, almost 110 billion roubles were allocated to support livestock farming. Over 2,000 – please note – 2,000 livestock breeding complexes were built and renovated with the use of the most advanced technologies. These figures are good, I think. As a result, the production of cattle and poultry, in terms of live weight, increased by one third as compared to 2007: the production of poultry by 82% and pork by almost 30%. Even last year, which was difficult because of the bad harvest, the growth was over 6%: 12% in poultry, 3.5% in pork and 1.3% in cattle.

As of the beginning of 2013, the growth rate was over 7%, a positive looking figure.

Last year’s harvest was worse than we expected, grain production dropped, which led to an increase in fodder prices by a third, on average, and in some places by as much as 40%, and to an escalation in production costs.

At the same time, since Russia joined the WTO and the Customs Union was formed, the Russian market has become more open and transparent, and the increase in imports has resulted in lower prices, as much as 30% lower and in some places even lower. As a result, the producers are in a difficult situation: profitability has fallen, as well as investment attractiveness of the industry, and, as I said already, growing imports make it even harder for the Russian producers to stay afloat.

To that end, I’d like to ask governors and regional leaders to report on the situation and what measures have been taken locally.

Now let’s speak about what has been done and what should be done on the federal level. The state programme until 2020 includes 60 billion roubles to be set aside for the support of livestock breeding this year. Measures will be taken to develop animal products processing, establish selection and genetic centres and to fight our biggest enemy, the African swine fever virus.

A new funding mechanism has been introduced: producers should be compensated for part of the costs of milk production per one litre or one kilogram of weight. About 7 billion roubles will be allocated to support livestock farming.

In March, the Government approved and distributed the subsidies. The regions have already received over 30 billion roubles to develop livestock farming (I’d like to ask the governors to report honestly on the received sums, because I have controversial information here). If you haven’t received anything yet, please explain why and where the money could be, including the compensation for part of short-term and investment loans, which was over 22 billion roubles, and about 5 billion roubles as milk production costs compensation. Also, subsidies have been set aside for livestock breeding, increasing the breeding stock of goats and sheep and some other animals.