The Russian government has instructed the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of the Caucasus and the Ministry of Industry to develop a plan to promote the agricultural products of the North Caucasus region in Russia's leading retail chains. The agencies have to submit a set of measures by November 1st.
In addition to promotion, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of the Caucasus and the Ministry of Industry should work out proposals for the creation and development of seed breeding enterprises, cattle breeding and production of wool on the territory of North Caucasus Federal District, RIA Novosti reports.
The head of Ingushetia, Yunus-bek Yevkurov, told Vestnik Kavkaza that he supports the initiative of the federal government. "We have long been asking for this issue to be discussed at government level. The Ministry of the Caucasus has long been engaged in projects of branding of the products of the North Caucasus republics, including Ingushetia," he said.
The authorities of the republic are working on this issue now. "We already have trading houses of Ingushetia in several major cities, including Moscow. An agreement with the government of the Moscow region on the construction of a logistics center for the supply of our products to Moscow and other regions was concluded. There are also agreements with other subjects of the Federation," the head of the region said.
According to him, Ingushetia is able to supply "apples, fruit, vegetables, honey, salted, smoked and canned food in large quantities". "In the short term it will be fish, milk, meat production and baby nutrition," Yunus-bek Yevkurov said.
The director of the center for agrarian and food policy at RANEPA, Natalia Shagaida, told Vestnik Kavkaza that the North Caucasus has great potential, but at the moment there are some difficulties in the implementation. "Now these agricultural products seriously lose to import ones: heterogeneous and small parties, non-guaranteed delivery, lack of modern packaging. However, this region has active population, natural conditions for the production of fruit, early vegetables, lamb and even beef. But we need to carry out very large and systematic work in order to promote products of the North Caucasus and replace imported products by it," she said.
"If the production is carried out mostly at small farms, so the question of support the development of cooperatives and contract farming becomes more urgent. We need to support the establishment of logistics and distribution centers in the districts on the basis of cooperatives. Where the products will be refined, sorted, packaged, and formed in the similar and large parties," the director of the center for agrarian and food policy at RANEPA explained.
"We can already speak about the supply of fruit and vegetables. In the future lamb and beef can be added," the expert noted.
"Unfortunately, we have no proper infrastructure and modern technologies for the sheep farming. Therefore, it would be good to work on this issue with countries, which do not support sanctions against Russia. For example, with New Zealand," Natalia Shagaida summed up.
