State Customs Committee head informs Putin of quotas for meat imports

Mikhail Vanin, head of the State Customs Committee, informed President Vladimir Putin on Thursday that government regulations on quotas for imported poultry and meat were observed.

Vanin sees no serious obstacles to the implementation of the government regulations on quotas for imported poultry and meat. In his words, these products are imported in the country only on the basis of licenses issued by the Ministry of Economic Development. The introduction of the quotas has already resulted in poultry imports' reduction by 95.6 percent, and meat imports by 85.7 percent.

According to Vanin, this means the mechanism has started to yield fruit. The introduction of quotas, he noted, is a serious support for the Russian agricultural producers. They will be effective for three years, and the government expects poultry farming and cattle breeding to become stronger so as to be ready to compete with importers, Vanin added.

Answering the president's question, the head of the State Statistics Committee reported the introduction of quotas had not affected the prices yet. He thinks the situation will begin changing from this August-September. In the first quarter, imported poultry and meat products flooded the Russian market.

Putin in turn said the Customs Committee and the Economic Development Ministry should follow the situation to react promptly to market developments.