On January 10 and 11, the head of the Omsk region, Alexander Burkov, is on a working trip to Moscow. One of the first events was a meeting with the Minister of Agriculture of Russia Alexander Tkachev.
Alexander Burkov briefly described the results of the agricultural year in the Omsk region, noting that in 2017, 3.5 million tons of grain were harvested in the Omsk region, which is 6% more than in 2016, 741 thousand tons of potatoes (+20%) and 272 thousand tons of vegetables (+12%).
Alexander Tkachev noted the good results of the work done by farmers of the Omsk region. The head of the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia also said that the state support provided to the Omsk region in 2018 will be maintained at the level of last year and will amount to 2.5 billion rubles.
The head of the region drew the attention of the federal minister to the need to increase the volume of export transportation of grain produced in Omsk as part of the zeroing of Russian Railways tariffs.
"As of today, we have set a grain export limit of 100,000 tons. But this is not enough for us – the fruitful work of Omsk farmers and favorable weather have affected a large grain harvest. During the January holidays alone, we exported about 20 thousand tons. In this regard, I turned to Alexander Nikolaevich [Tkachev – editor's note.] with a request to consider the possibility of increasing our limits to 250 thousand tons. The system of subsidizing the costs of grain transportation by rail will contribute to an increase in prices that will be of interest to agricultural producers. The end result is an increase in the profits of farmers. The regional Ministry of Agriculture is currently working in this direction," Alexander Burkov emphasized.
In addition, Alexander Burkov managed to agree on planning a working visit by Alexander Tkachev to the Omsk region in June 2018 on the eve of the celebration of the centenary of the P.A. Stolypin Agrarian University in order to fully familiarize himself with the key projects of the agro-industrial complex of the region.
Also during the meeting, Alexander Tkachev confirmed the continuation in 2018 of the program of preferential loans to agricultural producers included in the register of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture. Recall that in the areas of dairy and meat production, as part of the technical re-equipment, farmers can receive a loan from 1 to 8 years at a rate of 1 to 5 percent per annum.