Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev held a regular interdepartmental meeting on food security and the price situation in the agricultural markets, where they discussed issues related to the cost of transporting grain, the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation reports.
According to Patrushev, the issue of grain transportation continues to be the most acute at the moment. RUB 4.3 billion was allocated to subsidize rail transportation in 2023. The Government of the Russian Federation, in addition, within the framework of Decree 406, allocated another 2 billion rubles. This volume made it possible to open the acceptance of applications for subsidizing the transportation of grain in the direction of the Far Eastern and North-Western federal districts, as well as port regions. The Ministry of Agriculture expects that this will have a positive impact on the profitability of agricultural producers against the backdrop of a record harvest and external restrictions.
At the meeting, it was noted that interdepartmental meetings with business representatives were held to stabilize grain transportation prices. As a result, prices were reduced to the level of the beginning of the year, and the need for transportation from agricultural producers was also recorded. At the same time, the issue of road transport requires further study. Also, in order to maintain the price situation, it was decided to expand the fleet of hopper cars for grain traders. To do this, the department will work out the possibility of increasing the limit on concessional lending within the framework of Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation 512.
Separately, at the meeting, the issue of accessibility of agricultural machinery for farmers was considered. Since last year, there has been a decrease in purchase volumes, this is largely due to a reduction in supply on the market and rising prices, including for Russian equipment. In order to minimize risks, the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia, together with the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia, is developing a plan for the purchase of tractors. The total need of agricultural producers for tractors for 2023 is about 6 thousand units.