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Agro minister lays foundation of seed producing factory in Amur region

BLAGOVESHCHENSK, March 17, 6:16 /ITAR-TASS/. A capsule has been embedded at the site of a future seed-producing factory in Amur Region on Monday, four kilometres away from Yekaterinoslavka Village, Oktyabrsky (October) District.

The ceremony was attended by Nikolai Fyodorov, Russian Minister of Agriculture. The factory is to be built within the scope of the first phase of a future agriindustrial park with an aggregate area of 150 hectares.

The enterprise for the production of elite and high-yield seeds of soybean and wheat will be the only one ot its kind in Siberia and the Far East. The second phase of the project provides for the construction of a plant for an advanced processing of soybean.

Sergei Dementyev, head of the Oktyabrsky District, told Itar-Tass, "The grain storage facilities of the Amur Region do not cope with the crop that is supplied from the fields. The seed producer will ensure the storage and processing of harvest. The construction site has been chosen aptly: with a railway junction nearby and the possibility of additional dead-ends".

Seeds of elite varieties are intended to raise the yield of cereals and soybean by 30 percent on average, which is highly important for Amur Region the economy of which is based on agriculture.

"We shall get away from the boring figure of yield amounting to 10-13 metric centners a year. The factory will produce more than 50 tonnes of seeds," related Amur Region Governor Oleg Kozhemyako.

"Apart from the seed-producer which will come into being by 2016, provision is also made for a plant for an advanced processing of soybean and combined-fodder mill. The industrial park will be established of the budget resources of the Russian Federatio and Amur Region and on the funds of the investor 'Amur Agro-Holding'. Investments amounting to two billion roubles can be mentioned to begin with," Fyodorov summarized.

Out of the above-mentioned amount of investments, the private investor's share will be 40 percent while the Federal and regional budgets are to provide 30 percent each, Dementyev told Itar-Tass.

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