The Russian government has decided to zero import duties on meat starting from the new year.
Senator Anatoly Artamonov criticized this decision at the Federation Council today, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“We have all rejoiced at the successes in the development of agriculture in recent years. From January 1, import duties on pork and beef will be zeroed out. Yesterday the Minister of Agriculture of Brazil arrived. It is easy to predict a decline in interest in this business in the near future and the bankruptcy of a large number of enterprises that produce pork and beef,” Artamonov said.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture Ivan Lebedev assured him that nothing bad would happen.
“We believe that imported meat is always a more premium segment. There is a completely different cost structure. Therefore, this approach will not affect the production volumes of our products. We consider this measure justified and correct,” Lebedev said.
“You don’t really look like a defender of domestic agricultural producers,” noted Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko.
The government's decision was also criticized by another senator, Yevgeny Savchenko.
“There is absolutely no need to open the market for pork imports. Our own production exceeds consumption volumes by at least half a million tons,” he said.
Matvienko explained to the deputy minister that the criticism comes from two former governors of successful regions, and it is necessary to listen to it.
“If our agricultural producers fully saturate the domestic market, then why should we remove duties? The explanation that pricing is different there looks strange and incomprehensible. If the Ministry of Trade had said this, I could understand, but your task is to protect domestic producers. The answer is not accepted,” Matvienko said.