September 19 2006, 08:53

The Minister of Agriculture of Russia liked Hungarian produce

The site Страна.Ru informs, Russia is going to "support Hungarian exporters of produce commodities to Russian market in every possible way" on a governmental level. Mr. Aleksey Gordeev, the Minister of Agriculture of Russia, declared this on Monday. To confirm this statement, on Monday the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Regional Development of Hungary signed the agreement on cooperation in the sphere of agriculture and food industry for a term of 5 years.

"Our partnership has long tradition; Hungarian producers always successfully enlarged Russian produce balance. Our country do not produce sufficient quantity of fruits, vegetables and canned produce commodities", the Minister said. He added that Hungarian produce "is close to our preferences both regarding flavor and quality characteristics, so we are going to support Hungarian suppliers". At the same time, he noted, that "the producers from other countries: Turkey, Bulgaria, Moldova are actively competing for this niche on Russian market". The Minister also added, "the cooperation in the sphere of elite seed selection, livestock breeding, agricultural machinery, agrarian science, production and rotation of chemicals and plant protection assets are spelled out in the agreement".

Russia is still the most important trade partner for Hungary; this country exports three quarters of meat and semi-processed meat products, around 40% of fresh apples and canned fruits to Russia. Hungary depends even more on Russia regarding export of medicals and buses, and also furniture and fittings.

Andrey Yarmak, the Deputy Director of the Agricultural Marketing Project, thinks that Hungarian exporters of produce commodities will face severe competition on Russian market this year. The thing is, Ukrainian and Indian produce is being actively promoted on Russian market now. And, Russian companies have been recently building up the production of canned fruits and vegetables; the market competition has increased, as a result. The perspective export of fresh and canned fruits and vegetables to Russian market will be discussed during the third international conference-exhibition "Fruits and Vegetables of Ukraine 2006. Open market" to be held December 5th-6th 2006 in Kyiv, on the territory of the National Complex "Expocenter of Ukraine".