Concept of Common Agricultural Policy within the Union State Approved

Joint board meeting that was chaired by Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation Elena Skrynnik and Minister of Agriculture and Foodstuffs of Belarus Mikhail Rusy took place in Minsk.

Joint board meeting that was chaired by Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation Elena Skrynnik and Minister of Agriculture and Foodstuffs of Belarus Mikhail Rusy took place in Minsk.

During the meeting the officials approved the Concept of Common Agricultural Policy within the Union State and harmonized forecasts of supply and demand within the Union State for milk and dairy products, meat and meat products as well as sugar in 2011.

According to Elena Skrynnik approval of the Concept and the creation of a common customs area will make it possible to bring bilateral cooperation in agrarian sector to a qualitatively new level, to ensure stability and efficient development of agricultural sector of the two countries, to provide the population with the food needed.

Russian Agriculture Minister stressed that in order to implement the guidelines of the joint agricultural policy, specified in the document, we need to synchronize price, financial, tax and customs policies, as well as to harmonize the systems of government assistance to commodity producers and to attract mutual investment in agriculture and processing industries of agro-industrial complex.

Elena Skrynnik particularly noted that in order to harmonize mutual interests in agricultural business between our countries, over the last few years we have been successfully employing the mechanism of predictive balance between supply and demand, primarily for meat, dairy products and sugar.

The volume of the agreed balances for 2011 is as follows:

- milk and dairy products from Belarus to Russia – 3 million 600 thousand tons

- meat and meat products from Belarus to Russia – 210 tons

- sugar from Belarus to Russia – 200 tons.

Russian Agriculture Minister said that these expected volumes for 2011 agree with the anticipated volume of delivery in the current year. At the same time, mutual trade in agricultural products and foodstuffs within the Union State keeps growing. Over the first 9 months of 2010 trade turnover between the two countries has grown by 40%.