The agro-industrial complex has withstood the challenges of the pandemic with dignity and continues to show good results. However, problems in the industry still remain. On what painful points the Ministry of Agriculture should pay special attention to, the auditor of the Accounts Chamber Sergey Mammadov told at the "pravchas" in the State Duma.
“In 2020, 271,3 billion rubles were spent to support the development of agriculture, cash execution was 99,8%. However, if we talk about the effectiveness of these expenditures, then out of 151 targets, 29 or 19,2% were not met. Taking into account the prevailing weather conditions, the values of a number of indicators affecting food independence have not been achieved, such as: gross potato production; collection of sugar beets; commissioning of new and modernized areas of winter greenhouses, ”said Sergei Mamedov.
According to the auditor, one of the most pressing issues for the agro-industrial complex, even despite the support of the state, remains the provision of modern infrastructure for the storage and processing of agricultural products.
“Due to the insufficient number of modern storage facilities, there is an annual increase in losses of agricultural products. So, according to the Federal State Statistics Service, over the past 3 years, the loss of potatoes is about 7% annually, vegetables - 3%, and fruits and berries - 1,5% ", - stated Sergei Mamedov.
Another important problem is insufficient material and technical equipment of the agro-industrial complex and significant wear and tear of the equipment fleet.
As noted by the auditor, currently there are only 3 tractors per thousand hectares of arable land. “The number of tractors in 2020 compared to 2019 increased by 1,5 thousand units. At the same time, there was a reduction in the fleet of grain and forage harvesters. In addition, about 50 percent is accounted for by equipment with a service life of over 10 years. "
There are problems with the implementation of the Federal project "Export of agricultural products", which is aimed at achieving the goal set by the President - to increase the volume of agricultural exports to USD 37 billion by 2024. However, in the opinion of the auditor, the project activities have little impact on the implementation of this task.
“It is not the first year that we have noted that the export of agricultural products is characterized by an insignificant share of goods with high added value,” stated Sergei Mamedov. “According to the Federal Customs Service of Russia, in 2020, the share of food and processing industry products in total exports was only 13,3%.”
The auditor paid special attention to the situation in the food market. In particular, he noted an increase in the cost of a minimum set of food products (by 11,7% since the beginning of the year) and a decrease in the purchasing power of the population for 8 groups of food products out of 24 (based on the results of 9 months of 2021).
“Of course, this is now a global trend. A similar situation has developed in general on world markets. At the same time, I would like to note that the task set by the President in his message to the Federal Assembly to create long-term conditions guaranteeing price predictability and high-quality saturation of the domestic market has not yet been fully resolved and requires systematic work both at the federal and regional levels. "