Russian vegetable market is stable - Minister Skrynnik
MOSCOW. June 16 (Interfax) - The Russian vegetable market is stable despite the ban on vegetable imports from Europe, Agriculture Minister Yelena Skrynnik said in her report on the fulfillment of the state agriculture development program in 2010 at the State Duma on Wednesday.
Local produce will meet 87% of the Russian demand for vegetables this year, she said. Despite drought conditions, some 12.12 million tons of vegetables have been grown. Russia imported 2.6 million tons of vegetables, including 620,000 tons (24% of total imports) from Europe.
Local produce and imports from CIS member countries, primarily Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan, and from other states, among them Turkey, China and Iran, will saturate the market, the minister said.
The Agriculture Ministry is working to give local farmers an access to the market, Skrynnik said.
A program promoting crop growing in greenhouses in 2012-2014 and the period until 2020 and the land reclamation program until 2020 are bound to support local farmers, she said. The programs will enlarge domestic vegetable production to 17 million tons before 2020, the minister said.
