Russian Ministry of Agriculture intends to spend dairy subsidies on debts
Russian Ministry of Agriculture is not satisfied with the way subsidies per liter of milk are functioning and leaves open the possibility of redistributing this kind of financial support.
Some Russian media suppose that the authority needs to pay off investment loans subsidies debt, which is estimated at 28 bln rubles in 2013. According to Minister of Agriculture Nikolay Fyodorov, dairy subsidies reached almost 13 bln rubles this year, but the result is invisible or even negative.
Dmitry Yuryev, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, also considers it to be more effective to send this money for loan rates subsidizing. If the mechanism of dairy farmers support is changed, it will happen already in 2014 – as soon as the state budget for 2014 is approved.
Andrey Danilenko, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Souzmoloko, is totally against the possible changes. The sector has hardly recovered from WTO accession; farmers started getting partial compensations for losses, and now the government wants to deprive them even of this support, says the union’s representative.