Russia has increased chocolate production by almost 9% over the past two months.

In the ministry, a statement by the Executive Director of the Association of Confectionery Industry Enterprises ("ASKOND") Vyacheslav Lashmankin was brought, who explained such success by stable demand in the domestic market and increased exports.

According to the association's data as of the end of March (no later data is provided), our country increased shipments of pure chocolate abroad by five percent. Specific numbers are not specified. "This, in turn, had a positive impact on production dynamics in January and February," noted the ministry.

Also, ASKOND reported an increase last year for the first time in five years in the average consumption of confectionery products by 2.7 percent to 26.3 kilograms per person per year. The stable situation in the production and consumption of chocolate products can also be explained by serious existing production capacities and the fact that problems due to equipment shortages and increased production costs have not fully manifested themselves yet.

The Central Bank of Nigeria lifted the ban on using foreign currency for importing milk in March of this year. For a long time, only six authorized companies were allowed to receive these funds from the government to pay for products.

Now, according to the new directive of the financial organization, all importers can use this currency. At the same time, the Central Bank noted that the growth of dairy product imports may be limited due to the still low purchasing power of the local population and ongoing difficulties in sourcing foreign currency. However, consumption of these products within the African country is increasing, and prices remain high, according to the report.

As reported by the newspaper, within the alliance and among parliamentarians, several proposals have already been voiced to address issues with problematic crops. Primarily, this includes expanding the Federal scientific and technical program for agricultural development developed since 2018.

This program, in particular, can include brewing barley and waxy corn. According to Lobach, the organization is already discussing with the Ministry of Agriculture the selection of appropriate projects for the first of these crops either this month or in May, with the development of the second crop already underway. He expects that domestic seeds for both crops will appear on the market in 2030 and 2026, respectively. He also raised the issue of improving the recognition and global recognition of domestic seeds. For these purposes, the specialist suggested conducting blind variety trials, for example, of the same brewing barley.

The trick is that in open comparisons, domestic seeds may fundamentally not enter the world market. And in blind trials, when the commission has no data on the brand, information about it will only be available after the selection of the best seeds. And then the result will indeed be objective. Another proposal he made is to expand the application of different crops.

As a possible example, he mentioned the use of corn starch to create eco-friendly tableware. This would be a very valuable project considering the possible ban on plastic tableware in 2025. Vladimir Kashin, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Agrarian Issues, separately raised the issue of increasing the share of Russian sugar beet and potato seeds. As of today, 31 and 38 hybrids of these crops have been created in the country, respectively.