Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will on Jan.17 hold a meeting on "stable operation of the key branches of agriculture - meat, dairy and sugar ones", TASS reported referring to the cabinet press service.
The meeting participants will also discuss results of agribusiness development in 2014.
Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich and heads of agricultural unions will deliver reports. Deputy Agriculture Minister Dmitry Yuryev, a number of ministers and department heads, Central Bank head Elvira Nabiullina, representatives of banks and leasing companies will attend the event.
Earlier, Medvedev said the past year was "very successful" for domestic agriculture, as the grain harvest of over 105 million metric tons was the second result for the entire contemporary history (the only better harvest was gathered in 2008 - some 108 million tons). Good results were also reached on a number of other crops.
Last year, a milestone event for Russian agriculture was the imposition of countersanctions in response to Western restrictions placed upon Russia. As a result, the Russian market became closed for meat, dairy, vegetable and other products from many Western countries. In connection with this, the task of import substitution in the agricultural sector came to the foreground.
For additional support of domestic producers of meat, vegetables and fruits, a new wording of the state program to develop the agricultural sector was approved in December 2014. The agricultural sector state support scenario envisions allocation of 2.13 trillion rubles ($32.6 billion at current rates) until 2020 from the federal budget. In 2015, a total of 187.9 billion rubles ($2.9 billion) is to be allocated for the purposes.
The program stipulates that by 2020, agricultural production in Russia will grow 17.9% on 2013, and livestock product output will grow by 18.8%
Agriculture Minister Nikolai Fyodorov reported to the prime minister in early January that the program of import substitution in the industry is expected to be implemented "within two years at maximum."
The system of import substitution had to be introduced in Russia in connection with imposition of Western sanctions on Russia for its position on Ukraine and Moscow's countersanctions.