The Chelyabinsk region discussed the possibility of new government support measures for agricultural consumer cooperatives.

The Chelyabinsk Region Ministry of Agriculture discussed the possibility of new state support measures for agricultural consumer cooperatives, as outlined in the federal state program for agricultural development. These measures include four additional types of subsidies and two types of grant support.
In the Chelyabinsk Region, agricultural consumer cooperatives receive subsidies to partially offset the costs of purchasing agricultural produce from their shareholders and private farmsteads. In 2024 , 22.6 million rubles were allocated for these purposes, the majority from the federal budget. In 2026, state support for agricultural cooperatives may be expanded to include new areas outlined in the state program.
"By July of this year, we must formulate funding needs for the selected areas for 2026 and then submit a request to the federal Ministry of Agriculture for budgetary allocation," said Yevgeny Litvinov, First Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Chelyabinsk Region.
Andrey Vakhrushev, Head of the Department for Small Business Development at the regional Ministry of Agriculture, discussed subsidies and grants for consumer cooperatives provided by federal legislation.
Cooperatives can receive subsidies to reimburse up to 50 percent of property acquisition costs. The subsidy amount must not exceed 3 million rubles. The second type of subsidy is for the purchase of cattle to replace retired animals, also covering up to 50 percent of costs and up to 10 million rubles. In this case, the property and animals must be transferred to cooperative members. The third subsidy covers costs associated with the acquisition of agricultural machinery and equipment for processing agricultural products by the cooperative, covering up to 50 percent of costs and up to 10 million rubles. The fourth subsidy category is reimbursement of up to 20 percent of lease payments for facilities for storing, processing, and packaging agricultural products, as well as for equipment for such facilities, up to 5 million rubles.
Grant support is available to start-up cooperatives that have been in operation for at least one year, as well as to those that have been in operation for a long time. The purpose of this support is to develop their material and technical base. In the first case, the grant amount will be no more than 10 million rubles, with a maximum reimbursement of 80% of costs. In the second case, the grant amount can be increased to 70 million rubles, with the reimbursement percentage up to 60% of the cooperative's development project cost. Grants are awarded only on a competitive basis.
There are currently 12 agricultural consumer cooperatives operating in the Chelyabinsk Region, four of which actively benefit from state support. The main activities of these cooperatives are the purchase, processing, and sale of milk to dairies.
To expand state support, the Ministry of Agriculture invites cooperatives to assess their capabilities and prospects and submit their proposals for subsidy needs to the agency for the formation of a consolidated application to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture. Additionally, another type of state support is planned for 2026: subsidies for agricultural aggregators. The federal government
is currently working on the form this support will take . Agricultural aggregators are organizations involved in the development of market infrastructure for farm produce. They are designed to facilitate the distribution of such produce to small agricultural enterprises and private farms. These requirements are met, for example, by processing and marketing consumer cooperatives that purchase produce from their shareholders and private farms, process and package it, and then sell it to retailers. Processing and marketing organizations in which at least 51 percent of the shares are owned by agricultural producers—small agricultural enterprises, farms, and private farms—can also qualify as agricultural aggregators.