MOSCOW, August 14 (RIA Novosti) — The agricultural sector in Crimea generated $660 million in output last year, which made it third in terms of making money, just behind tourism and manufacturing. Being a grain producer, Crimea began exporting grain to Saudi Arabia and Turkey in late June, despite Ukraine's protests over the shipments. Russia and Ukraine are the region's main global grain exporters and rivals to supply customers in North Africa and the Middle East.
Between July 11-18 only, Crimea supplied 1,700 tons of wheat bran pellets to Turkey and 9,800 tons of barley to Saudi Arabia. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the region plans to export between 400,000 and 500,000 tons of grain this year, which is about a half of its expected harvest.
Experts say the most promising areas in agriculture are horticulture, viticulture and wine production. The latter area is where one of Russia's largest milk producers Ruzskoye Moloko wants establish itself in the nearest future. The company said it sees huge potential in the region, though stressed that there are only a few burgeoning enterprises like Massandra or Noviy Svet wineries. According to the milk company’s head Vasily Boyko-Veliky, the state of Crimean agriculture is worse than at least the Moscow region, while nothing was said of Russia’s Kuban, Stavropol and Rostov regions.
“We're in general ready to expand our business to Crimea. From our point of view, the state of the agricultural sector in Crimea is poor, and some form of governmental support is very important, without it, it will be very difficult to revive the sector. We know that many companies are striving to invest in Crimea,” Anna Boyko-Velikaya, deputy general director at Ruzskoye Moloko, told Radio VR.
Crimea's minister of agriculture is also quite optimistic. He said the key point now is to establish the distribution mechanism, adding that the Russian market will take whatever Crimea has to offer. Russia will provide $110 million to Crimean farmers this year.
