Russia will work only with those foreign seed producers who have fully localized production in the country. This was announced by the First Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation Oksana Lut during the parliamentary hearings of the State Duma Committee on Agrarian Issues, TASS reports.
“We are not opposed to working with foreign companies, but we want foreign companies to localize normally in our country. And not the way it was with tractors and combines, when we thought that we had a high localization, but it turned out that this was not the case. We want everything from germ plasm to be in the country, so that they would transfer technology to us, train our people. We have a good market, it is interesting to work with us,” she said.
Lut stressed that companies that do not want to cooperate on such terms will not work on the Russian market. “We have already had many negotiations, companies are ready to come out with this approach to localization from the very beginning. And this is very important. Maybe this is not what we quickly aspired to, but now we hope to get it, ”she said.
The First Deputy Head of the Ministry of Agriculture noted that the main tool for breeding and partly genetics is the federal scientific and technical program (FSTP), created in 2017. According to her, as part of the development, the Ministry of Agriculture moved forward, trying not to destroy the market, so a lot of things were created. “But, since the situation with you has changed since last year and difficulties began with our foreign former partners, now not very partners, we had to change our strategy, our vision of the development of the FSTP and accelerate. If earlier we went organically so as not to harm anyone, now everyone needs to accelerate together, because indeed the lack of our technologies and dependence on foreign technologies from unfriendly countries is very dangerous, ”Lut said.
She explained that the breeding policy was changed in Russia because a number of foreign companies behaved ugly. “The main company that has left the market is Corteva with the Pioneer seed variety. She left, turned everything off, left her varieties in the register and is trying to import her varieties into our country. Accordingly, they will not do this for long, because these varieties, most likely, we, together with the State Variety Commission, will exclude from the register, ”said Lut.
