During his trip, the First Deputy Prime Minister visited the region's Trubchevsky District and assessed Russia's largest investment project in quality beef production. The project is being managed by the agro-industrial company, Miratorg, with government support and with financial support from Vnesheconombank. In all, 12 specialised farms with a total of 36,000 head have been opened. The cattle population is expected to reach 80,000 head before the year is out. In all, 33 farms are to be built under the project by 2014. The total number of cattle head should reach 120,000 annually. A unique high-tech meat-processing plant will be built in the Bryansk Region.

Mr Zubkov later chaired a seminar/meeting on the development of the domestic livestock-breeding sector. Opening the meeting, the First Deputy Prime Minister said:

"We have just reviewed Russia's largest investment project to breed bighorn livestock and to produce top-quality beef here in the Bryansk Region.

"We have invited the heads of 17 regions to demonstrate the positive results of supporting this virtually new endeavor in Russia. To recall, the Soviet Union had only initiated small individual projects for bighorn cattle-breeding.

"It would be no exaggeration to say that the project we saw today ranks among the most ambitious projects worldwide. In this connection, I would like to separately thank Bryansk Region Governor Nikolai Denin for supporting this major project, including the allocation of land resources, the creation of the required infrastructure and the provision of skilled personnel.

"A comprehensive project for the creation of full-cycle production facilities, from fodder production to processing, has emerged as a result of working with Miratorg. When complete, the project will make it possible to increase the number of cattle head to 280,000. The entire project has a budget of 24 billion roubles, including a 21 billion rouble loan from Vnesheconombank. Considering the project's scale and favourable prospects for implementation in other areas, the government decided to subsidise loan interest rates until 2021 inclusive.

"I would also like to note the project's social effect. About 3,000 jobs will be created in the area of bighorn cattle beef production. Including two other support projects, about 6,000 jobs will be created. It is also important that the project stipulates construction of housing for employees and specific mechanisms of cooperation with small rural farms. Corporate management will discuss this in greater detail today.

"I would like to draw special attention to the regional administration's measures to provide the project with land. Substantial and previously unused land plots with an area of 200,000 hectares have been allotted. This has made it possible to re-cultivate large amounts of farmland and to use the region's land plots more effectively.

"I would like to remind you that we have increased poultry output 2.3 times since 2005. Pork output has increased more than 50% since then. Consequently, the share of Russian poultry in national consumption volume has reached 88%, and pork accounts for almost 77% of the entire consumption volume.

"Unlike those sectors, the beef import-substitution levels still lag behind the level stipulated for meat products by the Food Security Doctrine. Consequently, we have to import 700,000 tonnes, or so. As you can see, we have colossal reserves for expanding domestic production. At the same time, beef consumption can expand still further. Last year, annual per-capita bighorn cattle beef consumption totaled 16-17 kg. This is 50% less than envisioned by the Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development (25 kg).

"Obviously, this situation requires a comprehensive effort to saturate the domestic market with Russian-made beef. International experience shows that it is impossible to meet demand for top-quality bighorn cattle meat without expanding this livestock-breeding sector. The percent of beef cattle accounts for 40-50% of total European bighorn cattle population. The break-down for Australia, the United States and Canada is 85% and 70-75%, respectively. Russia has all the pre-requisites for creating this kind of production. The country's pastures cover 70 million hectares. In addition, there are over 20 million hectares of non-cultivated plough-lands. A favourable pricing scenario has also taken shape. Beef prices have been growing steadily since mid-2010 under conditions of stable demand.

"We have allocated seven billion roubles' worth of federal funding and 4.3 billion roubles from regional budgets to support bighorn beef cattle-breeding in 2009-2011 under the industry's programme for expanding the beef livestock population. Work is underway to improve veterinary legislation. The public is currently discussing a new version of the Law "On Veterinary." We continue to establish law and order on the consumer market in the interests of honest food distributors and customers. We are completing the coordination of amendments to the law on trade. The main amendments specify a ban on including mandatory payments in a delivery contract, including payments for marketing services and payments for the loss of products by the concerned retail organisation.

"We will step up control over the quality and safety of retail livestock products. I would like to ask the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Protection and Welfare (Rospotrebnadzor) to submit the relevant proposals.

"The regions should also create the best possible conditions for the development of the sector. Today, many regions, including the Smolensk, Kaluga, Moscow, Pskov and Novgorod regions located near the Bryansk region, have favourable opportunities for launching similar projects. The implementation of these projects will promote the development of farmland.

"Beef production in regions with low-profit, crop production industries affected by unfavourable natural/climatic conditions or high transport costs would promote a more cost-effective agro-industrial sector, to re-cultivate unused farmland and to improve rural living standards.

"The Ministry of Agriculture should prioritise beef production under the state programme of agricultural development up to 2020. This includes loan interest rate subsidies and support for regional programmes. Expanded production volumes will require the development of the distribution infrastructure. The government will support companies that expand retail trade chains."