In recent months, the Russian government has been doing everything to make the export of agricultural products unprofitable.
New measure — cancellation of compensation for transportation costs to exporters of sugar and butter.
As the head of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation Dmitry Patrushev said the other day, such compensations will also be canceled for exporters of grain, buckwheat and potatoes.
All this (as well as the already introduced quotas and duties on the export of many types of agricultural products) serve one big goal: to ensure that as much of the crop and products produced from it remain in the country, and prices on the Russian market would not rise.
«We have developed a certain system of support, subsidizing exports. Despite the fact that the situation on world markets has changed and exports have become very profitable, the state continued to subsidize exports. This is just a mistake,» Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the end last year.
Obviously, after his words like this, the government hastened to «correct the mistake» — including the cancellation of all kinds of compensations and benefits.
What forms of support will remain?
At the same time, the head of the Ministry of Agriculture promised that the state would still continue to support producers and exporters of the agro-industrial complex.
First, it is production support and concessional lending .
For example, beet growers will increase their acreage, and sugar producers will be given lucrative loans for the purchase of raw materials (this same beet).
Second, compensation .
Buttermakers, for example, are planning to reimburse a certain amount for each bottle of butter produced and sold. But it is not a fact that this will apply to products sent for export.
Third, it is helping exporters to promote their products abroad.
The leadership of Russia in this area is an unconditional priority of the state, therefore, exports will be supported in all possible ways.
Particular attention is planned to be paid to livestock breeders. The Ministry of Agriculture plans to arrange for them to issue loans of up to 1.5 billion rubles, as well as extend to them a measure aimed at supporting buttermakers: to compensate for the costs of each kilogram of meat produced.
However, exporters will most likely not receive “clean” money in the near future.
“Well, why do we need export subsidies when prices are already high?” — such a question was asked recently by Vladimir Putin at a meeting of the Ministry of Agriculture.
Therefore, the main thing that exporters can count on today is that world prices will not decrease, and export duties will not increase additionally.
