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Food Prices to Remain High for Decade
Food prices will remain high in Russia and worldwide at least for the nearest ten years, Russia’s Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeev announced in Essentuki during the meeting dedicated to agrarian policy of the country.
According to Gordeev, the global index of food prices stepped up 40 percent in 2007, hitting historic records on quite a number of positions. The grain prices, for instance, grew over two fold to $460/ton, while the rice prices have soared 2.5 fold to $760/ton since early this year.
In this environment, the minister went on, the highlight is securing stability on internal market of foodstuffs based on the accelerated development of domestic production.
“Under the forecasts of international experts, Russia has everything to ensure the growth rates in the grain and meat production that will be 2.5 fold to 3 fold above the worldwide rates in the nearest ten years,” Gordeev pointed out.
At the same time, the trend for the growth in farming imports continues, Gordeev said, specifying that the imports to Russia reached $27.6 billion past year.
The growth in food prices on global markets has materially affected the country and primarily the people of poor social protection, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made clear when addressing the event. “In this situation, we should pay the closest attention to strengthening stability on domestic market of food,” he said, adding that 90 percent of farming enterprises were unprofitable in late 1990s and there are only 25 percent of them now.
www.kommersant.com
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