ROSTOV-ON-DON, September 27 (Itar-Tass) — The international conference Grain of Russia-2011 is opening in Rostov-on-Don on Tuesday. The press service of the region’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food told Itar-Tass that more than 200 participants from 15 countries have registered for participation in the conference. They are the leading grain producers, processers and traders.
Almost a quarter of the participants in this year’s event makes the Turkish delegation comprising about 50 people, Egypt has also send a major group - more than 20 representatives of the country’s grain companies. The other forum participants are delegations from the United States, Ukraine, Libya, Kazakhstan, Jordan, Switzerland, Albania, United Arab Emirates and other countries.
The conference will discuss projections of grain production in Russia and prospects for grain exports, the application of modern technologies in the production, storage and transportation of grain and its processing products. A separate topic of discussion will be the pricing and strategic planning in the production of grain in Russia.
The conference Grain of Russia has already own certain history and won its place among other informational events devoted to problems of the grain market, according to the event’s release. The key categories of the conference participants include large- and medium-scale agricultural producers, trade and purchasing companies, supplying and selling companies. The conference invites heads of the federal and regional government authorities, leading domestic and international agricultural experts, representatives of scientific organizations, key consumers of grains from several foreign countries.
The key topics of the conference: Conditions on the world grain market and its impact on the Russian market; Potential for exports and trends of the domestic grain market; State regulation of the grain market (trading, production, etc.); Effective agricultural production: increase of profitability of grain production. In addition, the conference will present the large-scale multi-client study “Portrait of agricultural producer of Russia: south.”
The organisers of the conference - the National Union of Grain Producers and APK-Inform with support of the Russian Ministry of Agriculture - expect it to become a good platform for building a constructive dialogue on the entire list of the most pressing issues for the sector’s development issues and long-term partner relations and contacts.
Russian Deputy Agriculture Minister Ilya Shestakov noted that Russia this year may export from 20 to 22 million tonnes of grain. The ministry stressed that the situation on the domestic grain market is stable. The main factor in stabilising grain prices in the European part of Russia has become active grain export.
The National Union of Grain Producers was founded in March 2010 under the initiative of the regional enterprises of agrarian and industrial complex and with support of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation for the consolidation of agricultural producers and solves system problems of the industry. The main purposes of the Union foundation are the following: increasing of grains production investment attractiveness in Russia, grains production development as the very important direction of agricultural production, using the modern scientific-technical developments and innovation solutions, raising competitiveness of domestic grains on the world food markets, presentation and defending the Union members’ general interests. The union’s main task is system-based grain industry development with a view to attaining a guaranteed volume of grain production, the needed assortment and quality of a wide range of grain products for all consumers.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the grain harvest this year will be 90 million tonnes in weight after processing, according to RF Agriculture Minister Yelena Skrynnik. To date, grains and legumes have been threshed from an area of 34.7 million hectares (79 percent of the plan). A total of 81.1 million tonnes of grain have been threshed with the yield level of at 23.4 centners per hectare.
The sowing of winter crops in Russia has been made at an area of about 8.3 million hectares (46.5 percent). It is planned to sow about 17.8 million hectares, which is at the level of recent years.
The Russian cereal harvest forecasts for 2012 was previously announced by the First Deputy Prime Minister, Viktor Zubkov. In his opinion, next year’s harvest could exceed 90 million tonnes. The vice-premier who is in charge of the agro-industrial complex in the RF government said that this year’s situation is much better than in 2010. Zubkov said that “thanks to a record harvest of grain, sunflower and other crops and an increase in the loan portfolio of Rosselkhozbank and Rosagroleasing the winter crops sowing this year will be better.” “In 2012, I’m sure, the indicators will be even better,” he said. Answering a question whether the 2012 harvest will exceed the 2011 level, Zubkov said: “I have no doubt that it will be higher.”