VLADIMIR PUTIN
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OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN

Point of View

28 april
2011
Agriculture 81

“Our agricultural producers need effective support this year to harvest good crops. Our aid should address all from major agro-industrial enterprises down to small private farms.”

Vladimir Putin
At a meeting of the Government Presidium, April 28
20 april
2011
Agriculture 81

“We are building effective modern complexes and implementing family farm programmes. Our task is to ensure that Russian farmers become the masters of their own food market.”

Vladimir Putin
During the annual report to the State Duma on government performance in 2010, April 20
18 march
2011
Agriculture 81

“It is necessary to sow quality seeds and strictly follow all the required procedures. The sown areas must be expanded not mechanically, by any means, but in favour of the crops critical for the grain balance. And agricultural producers, of course, should be confident in the government support both on the federal and regional levels. They should be sure that they will be able not only to grow, but to harvest the crops and, of course, sell them at an attractive and economically reasonable price.”

Vladimir Putin
At a teleconference on preparations for spring sowing, March 18
18 march
2011
Agriculture 81

“I must say that this year we need to compensate as much as possible for the losses of the two previous lean years, create a stable grain balance and build up reserves. Moreover, grain is a basic resource for the development of cattle breeding and other areas of agriculture.”

Vladimir Putin
At a teleconference on preparations for spring sowing, March 18
2 march
2011
Agriculture 81

“This country will benefit from the development of the farming sector and from the success of those who want to improve their standard of living in the process. Cultivating land should become a source of pride and of prosperity.”

Vladimir Putin
At the 22nd Conference of the Russian Association of Farm Holdings and Agricultural Cooperatives, March 2
2 march
2011
Agriculture 81

“Regional and municipal authorities should provide vacant agricultural land to those who want to engage in agricultural production and become farmers on a priority basis. I request that our representatives and supporters in the local authorities be guided by this approach. We cannot allow profiteers and resellers to get ahold of these plots in order to resell them and cash in simply because the land was undervalued on the market. This land should go to those who will cultivate it, for whom agriculture is a livelihood and a source of prosperity.”

Vladimir Putin
At the 22nd Conference of the Russian Association of Farm Holdings and Agricultural Cooperatives, March 2
2 march
2011
Agriculture 81

“Russian producers are retaking their position on our domestic food market. Despite the hard two-year drought in 2009 and 2010, Russia almost completely met its domestic demand for grain. Russian producers now account for more than 75% of the meat market, and poultry production has doubled over the past five years. If you recall, Russian meat producers accounted for a mere 64% of the domestic market in 2005. And we can certainly be proud of these results. You, the Russian farmers, have made a significant contribution to this success.”

Vladimir Putin
At the 22nd Conference of the Russian Association of Farm Holdings and Agricultural Cooperatives, March 2
9 february
2011
Agriculture 81

“I am asking the Federal Antimonopoly Service to start investigating cases in which companies have artificially raised fuel prices immediately”.

Vladimir Putin
At a meeting in St Petersburg on the performance of Russia’s fuel and energy sector in 2010 and its objectives for 2011
9 february
2011
Agriculture 81

“Today we made a decision, which we agreed upon with you, the oil companies, to extend mandated discounts on fuel and lubricants for agricultural producers. The discount must be equal to 10% of the price of November 1, 2010, as agreed”.

Vladimir Putin
At a meeting in St Petersburg on the performance of Russia’s fuel and energy sector in 2010 and its objectives for 2011
29 november
2010
Agriculture 81

“We have taken a major decision in the interests of domestic producers – in 2011 we’ll cut poultry imports to Russia practically in half. This was not an easy decision but we’ve taken it with a view to reducing imports in general and strengthening domestic agriculture.”

Vladimir Putin
At a conference on the financial support for the agricultural sector, November 29
29 october
2010
Agriculture 81

“We have already implemented serious measures: we have allocated about 40 billion roubles from the federal budget to agro-industrial companies, rescheduled loans and leases and extended the terms of interest subsidies to three years, as you know. <…> I would like to remind you that we subsidise agro-industrial businesses from the federal budget to purchase fertilisers. I propose to earmark no less than a billion roubles for that purpose next year to make total subsidies for fertiliser purchases approach 5.5 billion roubles.”

Vladimir Putin
At a meeting on harvesting results and the development of livestock farming, Rostov-on-Don, October 22
25 october
2010
Agriculture 81

“It goes without saying that we should back the efforts to create favourable conditions for the qualitative growth of rural entrepreneurship, for more successful projects to appear in the sector. We will therefore selectively abolish superfluous administrative barriers and slash costs for food and raw materials producers.”

Vladimir Putin
At a meeting of the Government Presidium, October 25
22 october
2010
Agriculture 81

“It is essential now that we consolidate the positive trends that have emerged in our agriculture and related industries in the last few years. Weather anomalies must not eradicate these trends and throw our agriculture progress back. This point mainly concerns such key sectors as livestock farming. I am convinced that we can make a breakthrough in increasing milk yields and in the cattle population similar to the progress in poultry and pork production. I want to remind you that poultry meat production increased 77-78% and pork 39% during the previous years. Any industry would take pride in such achievements, just as any country's agricultural sector would.”

Vladimir Putin
At a meeting on harvesting results and the development of livestock farming, Rostov-on-Don, October 22
22 october
2010
Agriculture 81

“We will prolong the tariff reduction to July 1, 2011 and spread it from grain to soy and soybean meal from the (Russian) Far East. First, we will thus support the regions that must buy grain, including drought-hit areas. Second, reduced transport costs will, I hope, have a positive impact on food prices or at least help curb an increase. This is certainly essential.”

Vladimir Putin
At a meeting on harvesting results and the development of livestock farming, Rostov-on-Don, October 22
22 october
2010
Agriculture 81

“The harvest fully satisfies the country's demand in grain considering carryover stocks and intervention inventory reserves. We have enough food and fodder grain. Still, we need to suspend grain exports for the time being because the stability of our domestic food market and livestock fodder should be our top priority.”

Vladimir Putin
At a meeting on harvesting results and the development of livestock farming, Rostov-on-Don, October 22
14 september
2010
Agriculture 81

“We will continue supporting our grain producers and their investment projects; we will use every option at the government's disposal to help them restore their position on the global market. I also hope that our foreign partners will be understanding of our policies in light of what happened in Russia this summer. Most importantly, we will make a concerted effort to create additional stable domestic demand for grain: common sense tells us we should be in charge of our own house and have a reliable base. To do this, we will promote the expansion of livestock production and poultry farming, because these segments are major consumers of grain.”

Vladimir Putin
At the United Russia conference on the development strategy for the Volga Federal District, September 14
9 august
2010
Agriculture 81

“We know that grain prices are up both in Russia and the rest of the world. We see that the market is on pins and needles. Whoever is waiting for December 21 or 31 is wrong because whether we lift the export ban depends solely on this year's harvest. The problem is compounded by the fact that Russia's leading farming regions cannot sow winter cereal crops because of the weather, so a major part of the country will begin the new year without winter crops. So it appears that the export ban will not be lifted soon, even though it is, of course, a temporary measure. We are in an emergency and it is our duty to think, first of all, about our own citizens, including farmers.”

Vladimir Putin
At a meeting of the Government Presidium, August 9
27 july
2010
Agriculture 81

“You know that a state of emergency has been declared in many Russian regions. But we will overcome; we will allocate requisite resources to agriculture, as I have said. They will include direct subsidies, grants, government guarantees, loan subsidies, and grain sales, primarily fodder grain, to livestock-breeding farms from the grain reserve, and we will also subsidise the loans our farms will take out to finance such purchases. In all, there is a large package of support measures. We only need regional leaders and farm directors to act quickly and energetically to submit expert substantiation for the size of such support.”

Vladimir Putin
News conference following the working visit to Ukraine, 24 july, Yalta
24 july
2010
Agriculture 81

“A state of emergency has been declared in many Russian regions. But we will overcome; we will allocate requisite resources to agriculture, as I have said. They will include direct subsidies, grants, government guarantees, loan subsidies, and grain sales, primarily fodder grain, to livestock-breeding farms from the grain reserve, and we will also subsidise the loans our farms will take out to finance such purchases. In all, there is a large package of support measures. We only need regional leaders and farm directors to act quickly and energetically to submit expert substantiation for the size of such support.”

Vladimir Putin
From an answered journalists’ questions after a working visit to Ukrain, July 24, Yalta
4 june
2010
Agriculture 81

“Several years ago we set ourselves the goal of ensuring that quality and affordable domestically produced food is available in Russia. We adopted a state development programme for agribusiness and allocated over 300 billion roubles from the federal budget for its implementation in 2008 and 2009. Allocations totalling 107 billion roubles have been approved for 2010. We can say with confidence that this investment and other measures designed to support agriculture have produced the desired result.”

Vladimir Putin
At a meeting on federal budget spending on agriculture for the period 2011-2013, June 4
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