September 30 2004, 15:31

Russia: agriculture ministry forecasts grains crop to be 76 mln t

The Head of Russian Agriculture Ministry, Aleksey Gordeyev, informed that the Ministry forecasts current grains crop in Russia to be 76 million tonnes.

He expects confirmation of this figure by October 15.

According to him, agriculture production was growing 5 percent annually during the past 5 years. But last year a 1.5 percent decline was seen, and the trend is expected to repeat this year. Gordeyev supposes that this due to inefficient customs and tariff policies, Russian imports of agricultural products still 4 times exceed domestic production.

At the same time, he said that Russia has present-day production technologies, which could help it boost production in the agro-industrial complex.