Stefan Duerr asked to keep state support for dairy industry

Self-sufficiency in milk has not been achieved in the country, and the market is very complex, explained Duerr. ‘And since milk production requires large amounts of working capital, it is necessary to maintain preferential rates for working сфзшефд loans,’ he added (quoted from the video of the meeting).

Now the company operates in 13 regions of Russia on an area of more than 600 thousand hectares and is developing dynamically. This year, gross milk yield at EkoNiva will be 950 thousand tons, and the company will become the fourth milk producer in the world, said Duerr. According to him, now more than 14 thousand employees of EkoNiva live and work in rural areas. ‘Many people want to live in the countryside, lead a rural lifestyle and be close to their families every day. And most importantly, the rural population is not only the guardian of the culture of the people, but also a great factor of stability in society,’ the head of EkoNiva said. Therefore, the preservation and development of rural areas cannot be financed on a residual basis, says Duerr. Good infrastructure is needed for young people to strive to live in rural areas, and for this, the program of integrated rural development needs to be provided with serious money.

‘This year we had more than 1.5 thousand interns, very talented guys with great enthusiasm. They are ready to live in rural areas, but they need a normal household infrastructure, good medical care, and, most importantly, a good education for their children,’ said Duerr. ‘You can go to the regional center to attend a theater or a Major League football match, however, the child must go to kindergarten and school every day.’

After Duerr's speech, Federation Council speaker Valentina Matvienko noted that both the lower and upper houses of Parliament consider it necessary to expand the program of integrated rural development. Next year, about 31 billion rubles are provided for its financing. Earlier, during the "government hour" with the participation of Minister of agriculture Dmitry Patrushev, State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin proposed to bring the issue of increasing the financing of the village to the discussion with the Prime Minister, and do everything to ensure that "the program is funded in accordance with the data that were determined by the passport". "In our passport for the next year, the figure of 160.6 billion rubles was indicated. According to the forecast, the draft budget law provides for funding only 21.4% of this figure," Volodin estimated.

As for state support for the agricultural sector, in September, during the final Board of the Ministry of agriculture, Dmitry Patrushev said that the Agency is working on the possibility from 2022 to refuse state support in the form of compensation for part of CAPEX in the implementation of projects in the agro-industrial complex, redirecting money to concessional lending. According to Patrushev, an average of 8 rubles of investment is attracted for 1 RUB of subsidies directed to CAPEX, while the volume of lending for 1 RUB of subsidies is 31 rubles for short-term and 20 rubles for investment loans.

However, the final decision to cancel the mechanism for reimbursement of part of the direct costs incurred for capital construction will be made in 2021, Patrushev said, speaking in the State Duma. ‘Budget funds are quite limited and we are not allocated the amount of money that we would like to spend on the development of the agro-industrial complex. CAPEX allows you to get less resources from investors when financing projects,’ the Minister said.

Even if a decision is made to cancel the reimbursement of part of the capex, the Ministry will offer other support measures for industries that have not reached the level of self-sufficiency, the Minister assured.

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