Investments in Russian agriculture up 83.5% to 280 bln rubles in 2017 thanks to state support - AgMin
MOSCOW. Dec 7 (Interfax) - State support toward investment lending has allowed Russian farmers to raise 280.2 billion rubles in investments this year, which is 83.5% more than the same period in 2016, Russia's Agriculture Ministry said, citing Deputy Agriculture Minister Igor Kuzin.
"Investor interest toward agriculture is growing year after year. Unprecedented levels of state support allocated toward developing investments in the sector in 2017 have ensured high-quality growth for the industry. Investments provided through state support have grown by 83.5% to 280.2 billion rubles this year," he said.
He said that the Agriculture Ministry had approved 3,185 applications in 2017 for soft investment loans for a total sum of 503.8 billion rubles. Subsidies in 2017 have been calculated at 6.7 billion rubles. In 2018 subsidies will total 33.2 billion rubles. Moreover, the government continues to service the portfolio of commitments on loans signed before 2017. The remaining outstanding loans on the commitments totals more than 700 billion rubles, he said.
"The biggest interest from investors comes from greenhouse farms and dairy livestock raising. In comparison to the previous year, the amount of loans raised for dairy livestock raising has grown by 3.1-fold to 75.2 billion rubles, and for greenhouse farms by 2.2-fold to 120.5 billion," Kuzin said.
State support toward agriculture in 2018 from the federal budget will remain at the same level as 2017 at 242 billion rubles.