Increased ag exports are part of Vladimir Putin’s vision for the country
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Russian grain farmers will have to scale up production to meet challenges set out by President Vladimir Putin.
He issued an executive order on May 7 outlining national goals for Russia to achieve by 2024. Increasing ag exports to US$45 billion annually is among them.
Russia exported about US$20-billion worth of ag products in 2017, and food is the country’s second largest export after oil and gas.
Achieving the increased goal is possible with consistent production, Russian officials said.
“Our (grain) export potential exceeds 35 million tonnes this year, and we should increase this figure every year,” Dzhambulat Khatuov, first deputy minister of the federal agriculture ministry, said at the Golden Autumn agricultural exhibition yesterday, UrduPoint News reported.
“In order to ensure the fulfillment of the presidential May decree, we should achieve the stable production of at least 137.5 million tonnes of grain by 2024, while oil crop production should amount to 35 million tonnes.”
Unused land will be brought into production to help reach the target goals, Khatuov added.
Russia also appears to be recruiting farmers to help the country reach the US$45-billion export mark.
In July, Russia welcomed about 15,000 farmers from South Africa, who decided to make the 12,569-kilometre (7,810-mile) journey citing violence against local producers, The Citizen reported.
The following month, Russia made 2.5 million acres of land available to Chinese farmers looking to produce dairy, soybeans, wheat or potatoes, the South China Morning Post said.
Other elements of Putin’s decree include increasing the national life expectancy to 78 years old and to 80 years old by 2030, and making Russia one of the world’s five largest economies.
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