Equal Competitive Conditions Must Be Created for Russian Agricultural Producers

Russian Agriculture Minister Aleksei Gordeyev said during his address to the 2nd congress of the "United Russia" party that "equal competitive conditions" must be created for domestic agricultural producers.

The vice-premier recalled that in Europe, "the support provided to agricultural producers is 40 times larger than that in Russia." "We are not asking for money to create equal conditions with foreign producers," Gordeyev stressed.

At the same time, the vice-premier pointed out that with 10% annual growth of labour productivity, the profitability of agriculture was only 4% last year. He recalled that profitability of the oil industry amounted to 50%.

The vice-premier came out in favour of "just re-assignment of economic resources of the country."