New Measure Of State Support For Import Substitution In Russian Agroindustrial Complex

The issue of using domestic over imported goods (import substitution) and adjusting accordingly the agricultural policy has become critical following the Russian food import ban on specifi ed types of agricultural products, commodities and food products from the United States, the European Union, Canada, Australia and Norway, and due to deteriorated relations with Ukraine and Moldova. New sub-programs have been added to the State Program for Development of Agriculture and Regulation of Agricultural Commodity and Food Markets so that import substitution can be accelerated. However, none of the new sub-programs has happened to foster import substitution. In some cases (e.g., subsidies for purchases of pedigree seeds, raw materials), the eff ect has been quite the opposite of what was supposed to be. Funding has been cut almost for all sub-programs to the extent that it is incomprehensible that development of respective industries has been announced as a priority and how the targets can be achieved. The foregoing suggest that the Russian agricultural policy need to be adjusted and updated.