Putin urged to increase the competitiveness of Russian agricultural products for export growth
"Of course, as in all other sectors of the economy, we should not lose sight of the strategic objectives while solving common current problems. It is necessary to increase the competitiveness of Russian agricultural products so that domestic products and food are in growing demand both in our country and abroad. This is a major critical parameter around which we need to build our agricultural, industrial, scientific, educational policy, system of support and promotion of exports, development of deep processing of agricultural products", - he said on Wednesday at a meeting on situation in agriculture and food industry in the Russian Federation.
"Russian companies have achieved impressive results in the production of meat, especially poultry, pork, vegetable oils and sugar. Over the past 10-20 years, the output of these commodity items has grown significantly", Putin said. "We must now look further, of course, to develop such areas as horticulture, viticulture, beef and milk production", he added.
Putin positively assessed the prospects of the harvest this year. "The grain harvest in Russia has exceeded 100 million tons for six years in a row. This year we also have good prospects for the harvest", the President said.
Minister of agriculture Dmitry Patrushev said in turn that Russia will collect about 120 million tons of grain this year. Last year, the harvest was 121.2 million tons.
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