Import preferences cost Russian farm sector 8 bln rubles a year - minister
MOSCOW. Feb 26 (Interfax) - The trade preferences provided to food producers who export to Russia, particularly meat producers, cost the Russian farm sector 7 billion-8 billion rubles a year in lost revenue, according to Agricultural Ministry estimates.
"We estimate that this figure amounts to 7 billion-8 billion rubles a year," Agriculture Minister Nikolai Fyodorov said at an expanded meeting on the Federation Council's committee on agrarian policy and natural resource use in Moscow on Tuesday.
The preferences are a drag on Russian production.
"It is hard to understand why these preferences are necessary, given that they cost the country billions of rubles," he said.
The Agricultural Ministry has begun an inventory of the preferences used by food exporters, particularly producers of pork and other meat, "in order to take a comprehensive look at the situation," Fyodorov said.
Individually the losses are small. "But those figures point to the need to draw up an adequate, real state policy, which would take into account the farm sector and the outlook for its development," he said.
There have been positive developments in Russia's food production, he said. For example, imports declined 5.5% to $40.2 billion in 2012 and exports rose almost 25% to $16.6 billion.