Russia could raise import duty on flowers - minister

MOSCOW. Oct 9 (Interfax) - Russia could raise import duty on flowers, Agriculture Minister Oksana Luth said during government hour at the Federation Council on Wednesday.

"If we see, for example, that things need tightening up a little and the duty should be increased, then we will increase it," she said.

She said this applied to flowers from unfriendly countries. A 20% duty on flowers from such countries has been in effect since July this year, Luth said. She said this was a "semi-prohibitive" duty and that about 19% of flowers came from unfriendly countries.

Luth said a duty might even be imposed on flowers from friendly countries if their distributors were registered in unfriendly countries. "And we will continue to look at introducing duties like this if, for example, a company that deals with flowers in a friendly country is registered in an unfriendly country," she said. "We have started the analysis. This is more complex information. But we'll still achieve this and make progress with guaranteeing a market for our flower growers," she said.

Luth said Russia itself grew around 390 million flower stems or 25% of the market. "We hope to increase production this year," she said. This will be aided by government support measures that are in place in the flower industry. "We have made preferential investment loans to build flower greenhouses possible. The term is eight years, and this is by and large an adequate measure," she said.

Two major projects are currently being carried out in the Tambov and Tula regions, to grow 16 million flower stems per year. "They should be launched this year and next year, respectively," Luth said.