"The five-year program provides for a 23% increase in agricultural production by 2012, which is a substantial rise," Mikhail Fradkov told the government
Annual budget support for farming is to be gradually increased from 60 billion rubles this year to 130 billion in 2012, which is expected to secure agricultural growth of 4% a year against the current 2.8%, a government source said. "The total funding for five years will be 551.3 billion rubles [$22 billion]," the source said.
The Agriculture Ministry said it wanted to increase domestic meat and dairy consumption to 70% of the total amount consumed, a government source said.
"It meets the interests of national product security," the source said, adding that no additional quotas on agricultural imports were expected. "If there are not enough domestic products, then the products should be imported," he said.
The program sets a target for growth in livestock farming of 5% a year against 3% today. Domestic meat products should take up 76.9% of the market by 2012 against the current 57.7% in 2006, and dairy products 81.1% against 77.8%, the source said.
In 2005, Russia introduced a ban on Polish meat, citing health risks. In late May, Russia's food safety watchdog imposed temporary restrictions on meat imports from some European Union producers, including Belgium and Germany, for the same reasons. On June 26, the regulator temporarily restricted poultry imports from the Czech Republic after a bird flu outbreak was registered in the country. In December 2006, Russia banned all rice imports, again citing health concerns.
