Mr Zubkov noted, in particular, that Russian agriculture was developing at a good pace "despite tough competition, made worse by the adverse effects of the global economic crisis".

The First Deputy Prime Minister said production rates were not going to slow down in 2009. Since the beginning of the year, output has reached 80 billion roubles, rising by 1.3%. In the first four months of the year, poultry production increased by 13%, producing more than 1 million tons in live weight, while pork production grew by almost 8%. According to Mr Zubkov, the Government resolution to reduce tariff quotas on the import of poultry and pork has played an important role.

Mr Zubkov also said that in its 2009 budget the Government had allocated 191.7 billion roubles to finance agriculture, which is "much more than in 2008".

He said that the Government had instructed the Ministry of Agriculture to draw up a programme for pig breeding in Russia. The programme must provide for the establishment of a network of new genetic breeding centres, and the construction and modernisation of production capacities. Mr Zubkov said that the Orel Region already had a world-standard pig breeding centre, which produces 12 million head of high-quality stock. He said that construction of two more such centres would meet all the country's requirements in breeding stock to raise more than 36 million pigs grown for pork meat.

Mr Zubkov added that innovations in this branch could generate 100 billion roubles in economic returns in the next three years. He said that the Government expected the measures being taken would satisfy practically all the population's requirements in home-grown pork by 2012.