Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: The spring sowing campaign has begun, and we know how important it is considering the past two lean years. In point of fact, the goals of spring sowing and harvesting concern not only agricultural producers, but everyone in the country. We must help farmers achieve the best possible results this year. Providing equipment, which is largely your responsibility, the task of Rosagroleasing, is crucial for achieving these goals. I would like you to tell me about last year’s performance and plans for this year. This is the issue we’ll address first today.

Valery Nazarov: Yes, Mr Putin, it was a difficult year indeed. But, although the drought affected 46 regions, we supplied 4,886 pieces of equipment to farmers last year. Another element of the state programme is the supply of breeding livestock. Last year, we delivered 31,200 cattle and created stalls for another 67,800, achieving the priority goals of the state programme.

The past year was difficult for farmers, which is why we granted them a deferment for 2.1 billion roubles of lease payments, which is a considerable sum. Since then, this problem has been resolved. In the first quarter of this year, we have supplied over 1,000 farming vehicles to agricultural producers.

Vladimir Putin: How many, did you say? A thousand?

Valery Nazarov: More than a thousand, 1,118, as well as about 6,000 cattle. We have also assembled about 3,000 cattle stalls. In short, we are working…

Vladimir Putin: How do you assess Rosagroleasing’s performance last year?

Valery Nazarov: I would say we did well. The only negative thing was the low solvency of the farmers because of the bad harvest. But the government provided considerable support to them. Recent proof of this is the 1,118 farming vehicles we delivered in the first quarter of this year and our plans for supplying another 1,500 vehicles.

Vladimir Putin: I have several practical questions in relation to this. Do you remember that we agreed on lowering insurance premium rates to create favourable conditions for farmers this year?

Valery Nazarov: Yes, Mr Putin, you instructed us to ease the financial burden on agricultural producers as much as possible because it is unreasonably high. In 2009, we paid over 900 million roubles of insurance premiums, but this year we have cut these payments and signed agreements to cut the rates with all insurance companies. The average is between 35% and 55%, which is…

Vladimir Putin: Yes, this significantly reduces the burden. How much will it be in terms of money?

Valery Nazarov: I think it will amount to as much as 420 million to 440 million roubles, which the farmers will not have to pay. Furthermore, we have also decided to detract the surplus sums paid earlier in insurance contributions from lease payments. This is what we are doing.

Vladimir Putin: Good.

Valery Nazarov: The farmers like this decision too.

Vladimir Putin: There was also a problem of intermediaries. You said there were too many of them. But middlemen are part of a market economy. This is a normal thing, but we spoke about numerous cases when this intermediary activity was groundless and resulted in a rise in leasing costs.

Valery Nazarov: Indeed, Mr Putin. You gave an instruction and I looked into this issue: the rise really varied from 15% to 19%. And I’m ready to state that we have no intermediaries now, though this was difficult to arrange, since now we only have two trading houses, one of them is the St Petersburg Tractor Plant… But it’s a different story with them since they don’t sell farming vehicles. But we’ve done our best to secure a discount from 5% to 15%, so now we lease the farming equipment with the factory’s discount. Previously the intermediaries’ share stood from 5% to 19%.

Vladimir Putin: Let’s talk about the factories, the manufacturers. The wider the range of equipment offered to agricultural producers, the better. How is this issue being resolved?

Valery Nazarov: Yes, indeed. When I took this leadership position, we had a problem: the domestic farming equipment, which is highly efficient and of highest quality, wasn’t on the list. It wasn’t on the list that would allow it to be leased.

We came to an agreement with the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), we drafted a new provision, the FAS agreed on it, and we have already started to attract suppliers. We used to have 27 suppliers, now we have 54 – all of them supply domestic equipment. And the range of products has expanded from 327 up to 1,096 units.

Vladimir Putin: More than 200%? Almost 300%!

Valery Nazarov: Yes, it’s a significant increase.

Vladimir Putin: When we compare domestic equipment with foreign equipment, one of the most important factors is maintenance, including the warranty service and the warranty period. What about this?

Valery Nazarov: Mr Putin, we have made some calculations: the annual expenses for farming equipment total some 64 billion a year, since we have a host of equipment with a high degree of wear and tear. And the manufacturers agreed to extend warranty period, which will be 1.5 to 2 times longer. Domestic equipment usually had a warranty period of one year.

Vladimir Putin: And now?

Valery Nazarov: And now two to two and a half years, or at least a year and a half.

Vladimir Putin: What about prices?

Valery Nazarov: The prices have remained the same. That was the primary condition. Of course, the producers are always ready to extend warranty periods, but then the prices rise automatically as well, and the rise in prices may be from 4% to 6%. We have signed an agreement with the manufacturers; they have agreed, and now we are supplying farming equipment with such long warranty periods.

Vladimir Putin: Good. We have also agreed to increase the share of Russian vehicles offered for leasing, whenever possible and appropriate. What is happening in this field?

Valery Nazarov:  Yes, of course. The greatest merit of Rosagroleasing's new team is the supply of breeding livestock. We used to supply less than 50% of domestic cattle, but now we have supplied some 88% of cattle, for the first time in history.

Of course, it was difficult to form the leasing package for the entire country (in herds of 20-50 cattle), but we have accomplished this task. Both farms which supply cattle and farms that receive livestock must have veterinary services, that’s the most important thing.

Vladimir Putin: What about quality?

Valery Nazarov: If we consider imported cattle, the casualties reached 20%-25% in the previous years. Now we provide well-adapted cattle and the casualties do not exceed 3%. They usually occur during supply and delivery.

Vladimir Putin: Good. Mr Nazarov, we held a meeting with farmers in Tambov last March. Do you remember there was the goal to sell the available equipment to agricultural producers with a discount of 50%? As far as I remember, the overall volume of farming equipment stood at 6,150 units. What is being done?

Valery Nazarov: This is true, Mr Putin. The agricultural producers have welcomed your order, and we receive a lot of letters of gratitude coming to us; people are thanking you for such an opportunity. We received applications to sell equipment to 53 regions and this is about 5,300 units. However, we have encountered a problem: we have the equipment according to the documents, but we don’t actually have it.

Vladimir Putin: You don’t have 6,150 units?

Valery Nazarov: No, we lack about 158 units. When the potential buyer comes, he wants to see the particular farming equipment, but we don’t have it. We are investigating this. It’s difficult of course.

Vladimir Putin: How many units do you lack?

Valery Nazarov: As of today, we found out that we are lacking 158 units.

Vladimir Putin: Wait a minute! What do you mean by saying that you found this out? Where is this lacking equipment?

Valery Nazarov: We are conducting field checks and investigating why we don’t have the equipment. In some cases, some equipment was transferred to somebody on some mysterious grounds…

Vladimir Putin: So can you tell me or not?

Valery Nazarov: No, I can’t give you a definite answer now as to why we don’t have the equipment. I believe it is in the field, and this is a violation of the current legislation.

Vladimir Putin: Why can’t you tell me where the equipment is? Let’s turn to those who can explain, let’s ask law enforcement agencies to handle this issue, and I’ll ask you to provide full assistance to them.

Valery Nazarov: Sure.

Vladimir Putin: And you will report back to me on this issue in a week or two.

Valery Nazarov: Yes, of course, Mr Putin.