Russian PM orders to transfer all subsidies to regional farmers

GORKI, Moscow Region, Mar 29 (PRIME) -- Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday ordered the Agriculture Ministry and the Finance Ministry to transfer all subsidies to regional agricultural producers in three days.

“Otherwise, I will have to punish those who deal with these operations strictly,” he said.

Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachyov said that only 20 billion rubles out of 117 billion rubles of subsidies had been sent to regions so far.

He also asked the government to allot additional 30–40 billion rubles to subsidize short-term loans to farmers in 2016.

Medvedev also said that agricultural producers should not face any difficulties with mineral fertilizer supplies.

“(Farmers) should not have any difficulties with mineral fertilizers, whose stocks exceed last year’s figures. Prices grew sharply in the spring of 2015 forcing us to take urgent measures. This year mineral fertilizer producers pledged not to raise prices significantly during seasonal field works and preparations for them,” Medvedev said.

He ordered to keep the situation under control.

Tkachyov said that fertilizer producers will slash prices for farmers by 10% from Friday.

Russian banks provided 50.06 billion rubles of loans to agricultural producers for seasonal field works as of March 24, up 43% on the year, the Agriculture Ministry said in a separate statement.

Russian Agricultural Bank increased lending to farmers by 43% to 34.37 billion rubles, while Sberbank’s lending volumes rose 42% to 15.69 billion rubles.

(67.7807 rubles – U.S. $1)

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