Experts named mechanisms for increasing Russian agricultural exports

More than 500 people took part in the conference "Measures to increase the competitiveness of Russian exporters of agricultural products." In 2021, Russia continues to increase the volume of foreign supplies: as of August 22, exports grew by 18% compared to the same period last year to 19.2 billion US dollars , said Deputy Minister of Agriculture Sergey Levin

On August 25, Novotel Moscow City hosted an open conference “Measures to increase the competitiveness of Russian exporters of agricultural products”, organized by the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia and the Federal Center “Agroexport” with the participation of JSC “Rosselkhozbank”. The event was held in a combined format and brought together more than 500 people, of which 350 participated online.

During the conference, representatives of authorities, credit and leasing organizations spoke about the existing financial and non-financial instruments of state support for agribusiness companies, and the heads of enterprises and industry unions spoke about the practice of applying existing measures. The participants were able to discuss topical issues and voice proposals for improving the programs.

Plenary session “Agricultural export. Drivers of Development and Tools for Success” was opened by Sergey Levin, Deputy Minister of Agriculture. In his welcoming speech, he noted that in 2021 Russia continues to increase the volume of foreign supplies: as of August 22, exports grew by 18% compared to the same period last year to $19.2 billion. At the same time, the geography of sales is expanding and the share of processed products is increasing. . “In order to maintain the momentum of development, it is necessary to increase the productivity and competitiveness of domestic agro-industrial enterprises. Government support measures that help companies at various stages of their activities are aimed at this,” Levin emphasized.

Support mechanisms cover the entire production cycle - from an investment project to promotion of products in target markets, director of the Department for International Cooperation and Development of Exports of Agricultural Products of the Ministry of Agriculture Maxim Markovich confirmed.

New measures will allow expanding the range, such as support for organizations of the fishery complex and preferential leasing of high-tech equipment for the agro-industrial complex. “The most important element of the promotion system should also be the institute of agricultural attache. At present, we have already sent 14 agricultural attachés to countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East, and we hope to increase their number to 40 people by the end of the year,” Markovic said.

In addition, a set of non-financial measures is being implemented to promote Russian products abroad.

“The transition to the systematic development of exports is impossible without a deep study of foreign markets and existing trends. Therefore, the Agroexport Federal Center is creating a system of knowledge and competencies that allows Russian exporters to more easily enter new markets and actively increase their presence where supplies are already being made,” said Dmitry Krasnov, head of Agroexport. As part of this work, Agroexport develops concepts for promoting individual products to key foreign markets, export guides on a product-country basis, analytical, industry and regional reviews, conducts conferences and business missions, and also offers individual solutions for exporters.

Companies can receive a number of state support measures, including for transportation and exhibition and fair activities, through the One Window information system, added Alexei Mikhailik, Vice President of the Russian Export Center JSC (REC).

Almost 2,000 exporters have already used the digital service, and in total, more than 4,000 legal entities are registered on the platform. “Our task is to create an ecosystem around all the exporter's requests: obtaining government services, state support, analytical and business services that allow expanding the company's activities. We plan to launch more than 30 super services on the My Export platform by the end of 2024, covering the entire cycle of export activities,” Mikhailik promised.

Rosselkhozbank is an active participant in state programs, primarily concessional lending programs. According to Tatyana Pantelkina, Director of the Corporate Business Development and Support Department of Rosselkhozbank, the credit institution is represented throughout Russia by 66 branches, and also has more than 400 partner banks in 61 countries of the world.

“For 20 years Rosselkhozbank has gathered rich expertise in working with clients: from small farms to large agricultural holdings. Now we provide comprehensive support: remaining the financial backbone of the agro-industrial complex, we provide a wide range of non-financial services, including advising clients and “growing” exporters. Our product line is also constantly evolving and includes cash and settlement services, transactional products, currency risk hedging instruments, a wide range of trade finance products and government export support. At the end of 2020, within the program of preferential lending to agro-industrial complex clients, in accordance with Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation 512, loans were issued for 52 billion rubles, at the end of the first half of 2021 - already more than 75 billion rubles,” said Tatyana Pantelkina.

The Makfa company uses all available state support tools - these are preferential loans, compensation for part of the costs of logistics, certification, congress and exhibition events, Anton Belousov, Managing Director of MAKFA JSC, listed.

As a result, the geography of export today includes more than 30 countries, including 18 non-CIS countries. “Summing up the results of the export activity of the last three years, the growth dynamics was from 20 to 40% in monetary terms. In the sales structure, we aim to increase export turnover to 10% of total revenue by 2024. This year, for the first time, we tried the format of working with Agroexport - we developed road maps, choosing priority regions - the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and South Korea. Now we are engaged in further development of these markets,” Belousov said.

After the plenary session, the session "Measures to increase the competitiveness of Russian exporters of agricultural products: instructions for use" was held. Within its framework, representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia, Agroexport, REC, Rosagroleasing and banking structures spoke in detail about the main existing tools to support domestic producers, schemes for obtaining and requirements for companies, and also answered questions from the audience.

Yulia Rodionova, Deputy Director of the Department for International Cooperation and Development of Exports of Agricultural Products of the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia, commented on the key aspects of the concessional lending program. “In 2021, it is planned to launch a new state support mechanism within the framework of concessional lending (Decree of the Government of Russia No. 512), which will provide for the expansion of financial instruments, namely, a letter of credit, factoring and lending to short-term receivables. I am sure that this will become an additional incentive for the development of the industry,” she said.

Artem Belov, Director General of the National Union of Milk Producers, Mikhail Maltsev, Executive Director of the Oil and Fat Union of Russia, and Vyacheslav Lashmankin, Executive Director of the Askond Confectionery Association, took an active part in the discussion. The leaders of industry unions assessed the effectiveness of existing tools to support farmers and made proposals for their improvement.

The heads of the leading companies in the industry (GAP Resource, JSC Aston and JSC Conti Rus), in turn, shared their experience of participating in existing programs.

The programs of concessional lending and compensation for the costs of transporting agricultural products aroused the greatest interest. In particular, business representatives were interested in the possibility of additional funding for the logistics program this year. According to Olga Polozyukova, Deputy Director of the Market Regulation Department of the Russian Ministry of Agriculture, in the next 2-3 weeks, the issue of increasing funding in 2021 by 1.5 billion rubles is expected to be resolved.

The largest growth in exports is shown by meat, dairy and fat-and-oil products - Sergey Levin 

The conference was moderated by Vitaly Nagalin, Head of the Branch Development Department of Agroexport.