Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Victor Zubkov (left) and Minister of Agriculture Alexey Gordeev have a serious interst in grain trading.
Photo: Mikhail Razuvaev
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State Grain Trader Considered
Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov will discuss today the creation of a major state grain trader based around OAO Agency for the Regulation of the Food Market, for which the Agriculture Ministry is the ideologue. The concept for the work of the state trader is now being considered by the Federal Antimonopoly Service. The state is suggested to have only a blocking package in the trader, which will occupy up to 50 percent of the Russian export market by 2011. Zubkov is on a visit to Krasnodar Territory.
Before Zubkov left Moscow, Deputy Agriculture Minister Stanislav Aleinik released that ministry’s forecast for the new harvest. Aleinik said that interventional buying on the market may begin in mid-August. The harvest is expected to reach 85 million tons after processing and 5-6 million tons may be bought for the intervention fund. Russia’s export potential in 2008-2009 will be no lower than in the previous year (12.6 million tons). On the market, they say that the ministry has underestimated. Nikolay Demyanov, marketing director of the MZK company, say the gross harvest in the south of the country and the Black Earth region will be 95 million tons. Experts say the ministry has not taken account of the greater productivity per hectare and it is engaged in a ploy to affect prices.
The stock in 28 companies with state packages, worth $300-400 million, is to be transferred to the new company. Private business will also have a part in the authorized capital of the new trader. The project may be revised after the FAS finishes its analysis of the concept. A source at the Agriculture Ministry says opening up new markets may be a priority of the new trader. One observer mentioned Japan, which now buys grain from the United States, Canada and Australia.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of July 24, 2008
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