Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will hold a Friday meeting on quality control of export of agricultural products. This was reported by the press service of the Cabinet.

The participants "will discuss additional measures to improve the quality of exported agricultural products agriculture and to ensure its compliance with the requirements of foreign markets," the report said. The meeting will be attended by first Vice-Premier Igor Shuvalov, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachev, Minister of economic development Maxim Oreshkin, the Minister for Open government Mikhail Abyzov and others.

The growth in export performance

According the fireplace of the Russian Federation, the volume of Russian exports of food products and agricultural raw materials in 2017 amounted to $20.7 billion (121.3% of the level of 2016); increased, in particular, exports of cereals, vegetable oil, sugar, pork and poultry. In just the past six years, imports of food and agricultural products decreased by 29.1%, exports increased by 23.5%.

At the end of April at session of Presidium of the Council for strategic development and priority projects Medvedev stressed that Russia in 2013 by almost 2.5 times increased the supply of wheat to foreign markets, becoming the number one exporter for this product in the world. All in all, according to him, Russian food is currently sold in 143 countries, "geography is huge - from Egypt and China to the Netherlands and Iran." The Minister of agriculture of the Russian Federation on the results of that meeting noted that by 2024, the volume of SEL should be about $45 billion, which is almost 2.5 times more than in the current year. Moreover, according to Tkachev, it is planned to sell not only the traditional grain, oil or fish, but also sugar, meat and dairy products, etc., and emphasis needs to be done in the direction of processing is to export not raw materials, and finished products.

The quality control

The Minister of agriculture of the Russian Federation also said that it is necessary to form on the basis of the Rosselkhoznadzor "single authority control [product quality] from field to counter", which would track the entire supply chain, including for export. Tkachev has reminded that the Rosselkhoznadzor now controls only the quality of agricultural products and its processing and sale of finished products and controls the Federal service. This segregation, according to the head of the Ministry of agriculture, leads to the fact that up to 20% of production, and in some species up to 30%, enters the market in violation of the labeling and technical regulations. "We need a unified register of exporters, each enterprise should have a health certificate: is a document that says that the products coming exported, brand quality, environmentally friendly and meets all the standards", - said Tkachev, noting that this form of assessment of enterprises exists in Western countries.