Oleg Mironenko: 90% of regions will not support organic agriculture without the help of the state

The speaker reminded that officially organic agriculture in Russia has been developing since 2007.

‘We have created a system of certification of organic agricultural products, the standards governing its production, they are "live", they are now being amended so that within 2-4 years the industry will begin to develop and increase sales in the domestic and foreign markets,’ said the expert. ‘As we plan, our interstate standard GOST 33980 will be included in the family of standards recognized by IFOAM International.

According to the manager, 82 domestic certificates for organic agricultural products have been issued to 64 companies in Russia, 29 of which produce food products, 13 alcoholic beverages and 22 - only raw materials.

‘Of course, in this situation, the production of a sufficient amount of healthy food is almost out of the question,’ said the speaker. ‘But this is only the initial period, and we are experiencing many difficulties, one of which is the lack of certification specialists in certain areas, for example, organic wild plants, aquaculture and honey.

For example, even if we adopt a standard for the procurement, storage and processing of organic products fr om wild raw materials, we are currently not ready to certify these companies.

During the presentation, the Head of the department focused on the main issue, in his opinion, concerning the development of the industry, which in the current conditions is impossible without the support of the state.

‘The problem is, and I spoke about it in the Federation Council, that it is not clear when the federal support program with real financing of the industry will be launched, calculated until 2024, and that the state will first start financing,’ the expert stressed. ‘On May 14, 2021, the Council for Agriculture under the Federation Council made a decision wh ere the conditions for organizing such state support are stipulated, and a number of structures, for example, Rosselkozbank, have already begun to work on this issue within the framework of this document. We understand that 90% of the territories of the Russian Federation will never accept a regional program with organic financing until the federal program is launched.

The speaker cited one of the few examples when a regional program was launched in Voronezh region with the money of the regional budget, which included funds for subsidizing certification and purchasing biological products, which gave an impetus to the development of the industry. And in just one year, the number of enterprises producing these products has increased by 20.

‘If you multiply it by all the regions, then 1,600 companies would be formed, and this is the standard that we laid down when the law was adopted,’ the manager explained. ‘I would like to remind you that since 2007, we have created more than 120 companies (Russian and international certificates) that produce organic agricultural products. In Germany, there are 1,600 of them every year, in Italy there are 70 thousand organic enterprises. If we want to catch up with the developed countries, we must create conditions for our producers, we must reach a figure of growth in the number of companies – one thousand per year. I assure you, with the support of the state, you will see a domestic market for organic products of 5-6 billion euros by 2030.

The leader of the Union especially focused on the sale of organic food products to the population. According to him, 11 retail chains have officially announced that they will participate in the project of creating an "Organic shelf", of which four have already launched it. "Small specialty stores" are opening in the regions, and online sales of organic products increased 2-3 times in 2020.

‘Some people are mistaken that the customers in these stores are only rich people,’ the speaker concluded. ‘Since 2016, the situation in this regard has changed. Today, 40% of buyers are a middle-income family with a child. The customer is the "engine" of the fact that the family buys organic products. Another 30% are people with health problems and only 8 % are those who have a tightly stuffed purse.