MOSCOW, March 15 The Russian government will allocate an additional 7 billion rubles in 2024 for grain purchases to the state intervention fund, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said .
«To maintain the profitability of our farms, we are using a whole range of measures — from providing subsidies to farmers who grow grains, to increasing reserves in the federal intervention fund for agricultural products. We will allocate an additional 7 billion rubles this year for such purchases,» he said Mishustin at a Cabinet meeting on Friday.
According to him, this «will not only stabilize prices for agricultural raw materials in Russia, but also reduce possible risks for consumers and processors, including bakery and flour milling industry». This will also help ensure food security, the prime minister added.
He instructed the Ministry of Agriculture to monitor how effectively these funds will be spent.
“The funds will come from the Cabinet’s reserve fund and will allow increasing the volume of grain reserves in the Federal Intervention Fund for Agricultural Products by 2 million tons,” the Cabinet’s Telegram channel clarifies.
In Russia, since 2001, a mechanism for purchasing and commodity (for sale) grain interventions has been in place. In 2022, the reserve of the intervention fund was formed in the amount of 3 million tons of grain, the Ministry of Agriculture planned to send up to 2 million tons of grain to the fund. As a result of purchasing interventions that started on December 11, 2023, 845.1 thousand tons of grain worth 12.027 billion rubles have already been sent to the fund. Trading has been suspended since March 11; it will resume on March 26, 2024, after the completion of competitive exchange selection procedures.