Russian govt agriculture commission recommends creating produce aggregators in regions

MOSCOW. June 29 (Interfax) - Deputy Prime Minister Viktoria Abramchenko has approved a list of instructions following a meeting of the government commission on the agribusiness sector and sustainable development of rural areas that was held at the end of May, her press service reported.

One of the instructions concerns the development of a set of measures to create additional mechanisms to sell farm produce, including regional farm produce centers, or "agro-aggregators."

Pilot projects to create agro-aggregators are now being carried out in Tula and Lipetsk regions, the minutes from the commission meeting showed. Similar projects might be carried out in Bashkortostan, Krasnoyarsk and Krasnodar territories and Leningrad Region.

Abramchenko instructed the Agriculture Ministry, together with the Industry and Trade Ministry and Economic Development Ministry, to continue working on a bill drafted by the Federation Council's Agriculture and Food Policy Committee that would give regional authorities the right to create agro-aggregators.

The Agriculture Ministry was also instructed to send information to the regions about the implementation of these projects with recommendations for setting up similar agro-aggregators, including on the basis of existing agricultural cooperatives.

The commission recommended that the heads of regional government agencies, using the experience of Tula and Lipetsk regions, organize an additional sales channel for farmers through retail chains by creating a regional unified operator, or aggregator that would provide centralized deliveries of farm produce to retail chains.