Medvedev to chair State Council meeting on food security.

MOSCOW, July 13 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday will chair a meeting of the presidium of the State Council that will discuss issues of Russia's food security, and the development of meat livestock breeding in particular.

The meeting will hear reports of head of a relevant working group
Alexander Kozlov, who is governor of central Russian Orel region, and
Minister of Agriculture Elena Skrynnik.
Kozlov's report is expected to focus on proposals to develop a
strategy of the development of the meat cattle breeding sector for the
period of up to 2020. Such proposals include the overhaul and
modernization of cattle fattening facilities, slaughter houses and meat
packing enterprises, infrastructure and logistics facilities, and
facilities for the utilization of biologically hazardous waste based on
advanced domestic and foreign resource-saving and environment-friendly
technologies. "Apart from this, the working group proposes to elaborate
regional development programs in the area of meat cattle breeding, also up
to the year 2020," a source in the working group told Itar-Tass.
"Basic industry development aspects will include expanding the
production of poultry and pork to reach figures fixed in the country's
Food Security Doctrine," the source said. "Other aspects include
mechanisms of support to the meat cattle breeding sector that will change
the situation in the sector, prospects for expanding Russian exports, the
development of the system of veterinary services and supervision in the
cattle breeding industry, the harmonization of veterinary legislation with
international partners, the development of domestic selective breeding and
establishing a chain of hi-tech selective genetic centres," it added.
The meeting will also address such aspects as technological overhaul
of the industry, production of fodder, the development of educational and
research base, sustained development of the agricultural lands. "Further
subsidizing of interest rates on investment loans is a key factor of the
modernization of meat cattle breeding facilities," the working group said,
adding that after 2012, "it is planned to carry out a more differentiated
approach to measures of support to modernization projects in the meat
livestock sector."
Currently, meat cattle breeding is a leading sub-sector of the
agro-industrial industry. In the period from 2005 to 2009, pork output
went up by 40 percent, poultry production increased by 76 percent. The
situation is not so good in the beef production sector. State support
measures helped stabilize beef production at 1.7 million tons.
If state financing is preserved at the level of the State Program for
2010-2012, by 2014 Russia will reach figures fixed in its Food Security
Doctrine as concerns pork and poultry production, and, for the first time
in the post-Soviet history, Russia might become one of the leading poultry
exporters in 2013, and pork exporters in 2014.
"In case extra state support measures are offered to the meat cattle
breeding sector, Russia might reach considerable export volumes by 2020,"
the working group said. "Thus, the development of meat cattle breeding
sector will not only help solve the country's food security tasks, but
also make it possible to diversify its exports and reduce its dependence
on primary resources."

.Russian minister of industry to visit industrial facilities in
Sverdlovsk region.

YEKATERINBURG, July 13 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian Minister of Industry and
Trade Viktor Khristenko on Tuesday arrives in the Sverdlovsk region to
visit a number of regional industrial facilities and to open an
international exhibition of technical defence and protection means.
Khristenko will visit the Pervouralsk Novotrubny Works to familiarise
himself with the progress in the construction of a state-of-the-art
steel-making facility, the works' press service told Itar-Tass. According
to the press service, the facility with the capacity of 950,000 round
billets a year is planned to be commissioned this fall. The production
facility will meet the strictest ecological standards.
On July 14, Khristenko will unveil the 6th International Exhibition
Defence and Protection in the city of Nizhny Tagil.
"The exhibition has gained a regular status, some 250 potential
exhibitors from 36 countries have already filed participation
applications," said the head of the Sverdlovsk region government, Anatoly
Gredin.
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