Mr Zubkov told the meeting that the Russian Government, in spite of the crisis, was planning to earmark 72 billion roubles for new agricultural projects in 2009. All the earlier projects will also be credited. The First Deputy Prime Minister said that 139 billion roubles in loans to agriculture had been disbursed since the beginning of the year. The total amount of credits to agriculture this year will be 866 billion roubles, and 30 billion roubles has already been disbursed to finance the spring sowing season.
"Agriculture has an opportunity to develop in the crisis conditions. It makes no sense to import food, and it does make sense to produce food domestically," the First Deputy Prime Minister said. "Even if it needs loans, our agriculture will develop, perhaps even more effectively than before the crisis." Mr Zubkov thinks the prospects for the sector are good because its output is in demand at all times, crisis or no crisis.
Speaking about the measures to curb the growth of fuel prices, the First Deputy Prime Minister said that an agricultural fuel company has been created jointly by Rosselkhozbank (90%) and Rosagrolizing (10%). "Every year, as soon as the spring season begins, prices go up; now we have agreed with the oil companies that they will freeze fuel prices at the January 15, 2009 level," Mr Zubkov said.
By 2011 Russia can be fully self-sufficient in poultry meat and pork, the First Deputy Prime Minister thinks. "In 2011 we will meet all our needs for poultry meat and pork and will be actively engaged in increasing the production of beef," Mr Zubkov said. This year Russia could well increase the production of poultry meat by 386,000 tons and of pork by more than 200,000 tons," he said.
Stressing that Russia has emerged as a major grain exporter in recent years, the First Deputy Prime Minister said that it was necessary to start exporting finished products, including meat. "We have been exporting a lot of grain recently, which is good news, but on the other hand, it is better to export finished products," Mr Zubkov stressed. "We should try to start exporting meat in the coming years."