In 2017, the growth rates of agricultural production in Russia can reach 2-3%, declared the Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, Alexander Tkachev on September 13.
Taking into account high stocks reached last year, and in terms of good weather conditions, the Ministry forecasted increasing of the agricultural figures to 3%. During three recent years, the industry demonstrated high rates of development: the growth of production by over 11%, reduction of food imports in almost 2 times - from 43 to 25 bln USD, the Minister said.
As for the harvesting campaign rates, A.Tkachev noted that to date agrarians already harvested grains throughout two thirds of the planned areas, and produced 105 mln tonnes of grains in bunker weight. The average yield increased the last year figures by 10%.
Therefore, agrarians managed to harvest more high-quality milling wheat, barley, corn, etc. At the same time, in the autumn the weather conditions can make some adjustments, cooling and rains may somewhat slow down the harvesting campaign rates. So, the Ministry still kept rather conservative forecast of grain production in 2017 at 110 mln tonnes, added A.Tkachev.
