Vestnik Kavkaza
In early August the Russian government banned imports of certain types of agricultural products, raw materials and food into the country from countries that support sanctions against Russia. Many experts saw this as a positive step. Some hope that Russia will finally begin supporting local farmers. Others argue that the government has now in its hands a powerful propaganda trump card for those who do not support the official position: "A true patriot will be satisfied by Tambov ham and Kostroma cheese. It is you, who who are accustomed to delicacies, that are thrown by your beloved West."
The list of banned products includes fresh, chilled, dried and smoked meat, fish and crustaceans, molluscs and other aquatic invertebrates, vegetables, roots and tubers, including dried, canned and frozen fruits and nuts, sausages and prepared meat products, products based on vegetable fats, including cheese and cottage cheese, milk products based on vegetable fats and milk itself.
Actually, lactose-free milk, some sports nutrition products and supplements for allergy sufferers and diabetics may be excluded from the list of prohibited imported products. However, the chairman of the National Union of Milk Producers, Andrei Danilenko, said that lifting the embargo on the import of lactose-free milk is unnecessary. According to him, today in many parts of the country quite serious, large-scale investment projects have been worked out, including the Caucasus and Stavropol Territory. "The Stavropol city plant is the largest producer of dairy products; today it has very large production volumes. The Stavropol plant has already prepared a draft of dairy cattle, a fully-automated enterprise, but they stopped the project because of the unclear situation with the level of government support and general market conditions. Despite the willingness of the company to start working, it is necessary to solve the problem with the credit institutions and the question of the level of government support. Regional authorities are very kindly disposed towards this project and support it. That is, there is support at all levels."
According to Danilenko, the main thing here is the level of federal support: "In the last two years, unfortunately, the federal government and the Ministry of Agriculture did not consider any new projects. The current situation will be an incentive to start immediately considering new projects. The project in Stavropol is one of the largest in Russia today, and the biggest project with the use of robots in one place."
