Opening the meeting, the Minister of Agriculture said sheep production is a key subsector of the Russian agro-industrial complex, and a highly important livestock production segment for a number of regions. Nikolai Fyodorov said the sheep production has shown positive trends over the past few years. The sheep-and-goat population at farms of all categories increased by 1.3 million heads in 2012 and reached 24.2 million heads in early 2013.
The Minister said state support was making a considerable contribution to the development of sheep and goat production. In 2013, 653 million roubles in federal funds were provided to farmers to reimburse part of the cost of increasing the pedigree sheep and goat population. Given the level of support for the pedigree cattle population, over one billion roubles in federal assistance will go to sheep production.
During the meeting, Nikolai Fyodorov also said that the Ministry of Agriculture is drafting proposals on adjusting the programme Agricultural Development and Regulation of Agricultural Products, Commodities and Food, 2013-2020, which provides additional support for the sector. This will help expand production of fine wool and semi-fine wool at textile and light industry enterprises.
Source: Ministry of Agriculture
