Russia's duties on wine imports should rise to 50% - DP Patrushev

MOSCOW. Nov 7 (Interfax) - Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev supports increasing duties on wine imports from unfriendly countries, but believes that they should not be prohibitive.

"I agree that the 25% duty can be increased, maybe up to 30%, up to 50%, but this will allow us to form a source for directing money to the development of Russian viticulture," Patrushev said at the III Russian Wine Forum on Thursday in Moscow.

"Therefore, we will not take a hard line on prohibitive duties, but will proceed from the necessary sufficiency," he said.

Patrushev said that this is necessary in order to boost the rise of industry. "We plan to increase support in principle," he assured, noting that all support instruments included in the federal project for the development of viticulture and winemaking will be preserved.

"If anything else is needed, I suggest sending these proposals to the Ministry of Agriculture, and they will definitely work on it. We are ready to expand [support], but we need money for this," he said.

Patrushev also reported that 3.5 billion rubles were allocated to support the industry this year, and 4 billion rubles have been allocated for next year.