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RF government allocates target subsidy to cut the cost of ferry crossing to Crimea

SIMFEROPOL, July 09, /ITAR-TASS/. The Russian government has allocated funds to cut the cost of ferrying trucks into Crimea via the Strait of Kerch, Crimea’s acting prime minister, Sergei Aksyonov, said on Wednesday.

"Ferry crossing prices for oversize vehicles should be 10,700 roubles (about 315 USD). The matter has been settled with the Russian government, which has allocated a target-oriented subsidy. So please cut the ferry prices. If necessary, I am going to contact the (federal) government head once again,” Aksyonov told a meeting of the Crimean Council of Ministers.

Previously, the Single Transport Direction non-profit organization increased the cost of ferry crossing for trucks from Novorossiisk port, southern Russia, to Feodosiya and Kerch in Crimea from 11,470 roubles per truck (about 345 USD) in May to the current 20,650 roubles (about 608 USD). The company linked the price hike to the high cost price of ferry crossings.

At the same time, the average waiting time for the ferry crossing for trucks is two days, Crimea’s Transport Ministry said.

Meanwhile, Crimea has increased its grain yield to 30 centners per hectare which is twice as high as the initial forecast of 15-20 centners despite an artificial drought created by the blockage of the North Crimean Canal, Crimea’s Agriculture Ministry says in a report provided to Itar-Tass.

The ministry’s experts said that rains that had fallen on the peninsula were the root cause behind the rich grain harvest.

Crimea’s Agriculture Ministry also noted the growing problem of disparity of grain prices in the region. Dealers are paying 5,000 roubles (about 148 USD) per tonne of barley while grain producers believe that 6,000 roubles (about 176 USD) is a fairer price.

Nikolai Polyushkin, the Crimean minister of food and agrarian policy, said previously that European sanctions on Crimean goods have created problems with grain sales, considering the harvest is good. State interventions, which Russia has been practicing for several years, have become particularly important for Crimean grain enterprises under the current circumstances.

Crimea’s Agriculture Ministry Nikolai Fyodorov told a meeting on development of the agri-industrial complex in June 2014, that the state would continue grain a policy of grain interventions in 2014.

A system of grain interventions when the state buys or sells grain to stabilize domestic prices has existed in Russia since 2001.