A green signal for Russian grain export to PRC!
According to “Beijing Program” introduced by the President of the National Grain producers’ Union P. Skurikhin and the President of Barley, Malt, Hops & Beer Union A. Mordovin supported by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry for Economic Development, two PRC delegations – public bodies and representatives of PRC business community visited the RF.
Delegations were led by Li Hui, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China to the Russian Federation, Zhang Chengxiao, the Head of the PRC Grain Department, Wu-jiu Zhang, the President of the National Research Institute of Food and Fermentation Industries, Song Shuyu, Secretary-General of the China Alcoholic Drinks Industry Association. The list of participants is here.
The first meeting with representatives of PRC and Russian authorities was held by the Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the RF – the Head of the Russian Sub-Commission for Agriculture under the Russian-Chinese Commission for Preparing Regular Summit Conferences, Ilya Shestakov.
The second meeting was held by A. Volkov, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture and the responsible person for plant, food and processing industries.
The third meeting was conducted by the Deputy Director of the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision, Nikolay Vlasov.
Parties took a favorable view of bilateral agricultural cooperation. The following questions have been discussed within meetings: supplies of the Russian grain to the Chinese market, price assessments for crops and current state and prospects of the Russian grain industry.
Ilya Shestakov noted that Russian regions and exporting companies are interested in supplies of grain and derivative products to China in the short run.
The Chinese representatives expressed great interest in development of agricultural relations and offered help in construction of load transfer points on Russia and China’s borders and also re-equipment of grain storage capacities at the territory of the RF.
Russian representatives offered to create a cooperation framework between Russian and Chinese companies. Parties agreed to determine the organizational form of the mentioned cooperation at the next meeting of the Russian-Chinese Agricultural Sub-Commission.
Pavel Skurikhin’s idea concerning introduction of the working group was supported by both sides.
According to the results of the meeting, the Assistant Director Alexey Alekseenko informed that Russian supplies will begin at the end of 2014 – at the beginning of 2015.
“Chinese partners are waiting for information about the activity of our phytosanitary system. We’ll give all answers within 2-3 weeks and then we’ll enter the home stretch,” Alekseenko told.
As Pavel Skurikhin noted, the most important thing for Russian grain producers is developing of highly marginal and fastest growing markets. The most attractive regions for Russian crops are Middle East and Southeast Asia.
The President of Barley, Malt, Hops & Beer Union A. Mordovin introduced “Beijing Program, its history and implementation phases.
It is worth noting that even the brightest skeptics and evil tongues among our colleagues, tattled about hopelessness of Beijing Program, stopped doubting and joined the project. We are open for agricultural team-work with all participants of the agro-industrial complex.
The most significant event for Chinese partners was the invitation of the CEO of the largest vodka distillery “Kristall” Roman Malyshev to his plant in Korystovo village in the Moscow Region.
The President of the Union A. Mordovin thanks our colleagues – representatives of the Russian vodka industry and, personally, the CEO Roman Malyshev for an excursion and a banquet. The representatives of the brewing industry would do well to learn from him – firstly, to hospitality!
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