On March 4, as part of the business program of the XIV Potato-2022 Interregional Industry Exhibition, a round table was held on the problems and prospects of the potato processing industry. Many participants said that in the current difficult period, state support is very important for the development of the direction. What measures are needed today? Oleg Radin, President Association of enterprises of deep processing of grain "Soyuzkrakhmal", spoke about his vision of the situation.
- In my opinion, one of the main support measures at the moment should be the maximum (as far as possible) simplification of the procedure for importing seed material of technical potato varieties into Russia and reducing the time for registration of the corresponding new varieties in the State Register of Breeding Achievements approved for use. This will give an impetus to the development of existing projects and will greatly reduce the time for commissioning new ones - the period of formation of the raw material base will definitely be reduced by 1-2 years.
In addition, it is necessary to stimulate the cultivation of technical varieties of potatoes in the country. Moreover, this measure should be introduced right now, if the production of, for example, potato starch is important for the country. Let me remind you that in Russia only a few enterprises are engaged in the production of this product (no more than five are known), which process about 300 thousand tons of potato waste per year.
It is also necessary to pay attention to the logistics costs of agricultural enterprises: potatoes are not transported over a distance of more than 400 km, since this is not economically profitable. In addition, it would be advisable to include at least 25% compensation for transport costs within the framework of regional budgets; this would already be a good help for farmers and would allow processors to expand the range of raw material suppliers.
Now directly about the support of processing enterprises. We all know that there is a mechanism for reimbursement of direct costs incurred for the construction of agro-industrial complex (CapEX). Moreover, there is a CapEX for export-oriented companies. But this support measure does not apply to potato processing industries. If it is provided for reimbursement of costs for the construction or modernization of enterprises for deep processing of potatoes, I think there will be more people who want to develop the direction.
Of great importance is the possibility of obtaining investment loans with a preferential rate of 5%, and preferably 3%. There are such loans today for grain processors, but not for potato starch producers.
And one more important point: the processing enterprises are mainly equipped with imported equipment. It is obvious that in the near future it will not be possible to transfer our factories to Russian equipment, it will take years to establish such production facilities. At the moment, zeroing (maximum reduction) of import duties on equipment would be a good help for enterprises.