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By Anatoly Medetsky
Yevgenia Ivanova, 63, wanders around a Vladivostok grocery where the shelves are filled with imported foods: tea, vegetable oil, cookies, meat, and other products. She says the increasing value of the dollar makes overseas food unaffordable, and locally made substitutes are often unavailable. "This is subversion against the Russian people," Ivanova said. However, it may not be too late to rescue local farming, and the combination of an new local law currently under consideration by the Primorye Duma and a hike in the price of imported produce may help Primorye's agricultural sector out of a long-lasting crisis. At its Sept. 30 session, the Duma passed the bill in a first reading by a vote of 35-0, with one abstention. The bill stipulates the creation of a special fund to stimulate farming, stock raising, growing seeds, and breeding. "This measure is extremely necessary," said Sergei Sidorenko, chairman of the Duma's Committee for Food Policy and the Use of Nature which introduced the bill. "If things go the same way as they have been, agriculture in the krai will be non-existent in three to four years." Primorye's agriculture has struggled through dire straits for the past five years, leaving the region 70-90 percent dependent on imports. Between 1993 and 1997, the sector's gross product dropped by three quarters. The numbers of livestock have decreased by 70 percent, and equipment deterioration is 85 to 95 percent, a report by Sidorenko says. The report states that 92 percent of agricultural companies incurred cumulative losses of 366 million rubles in 1997. If established, the fund would secure funding for farming proportional to that of other portions of the budget. During the first half of the year, most areas received a mere 40 percent of their planned budget, whereas farming received just 19.7 percent, Sidorenko said. The fund will provide 316 million rubles ($20 million) next year, the same amount budgeted this year for agriculture and fisheries, he said. The law, which deputies say will lay the groundwork for an agricultural renaissance in the region, will tentatively take effect Jan. 1. It would be a part of next year's budget. Local companies hailed the law, saying the $20 million in support it will provide will increase production. "With the support [the fund] could provide, I could make my company profitable in two months," said Yury Shvetsov, director of Ussuriskaya Poultry Farm, the krai's largest, based in Artyom. Ussuriskaya, now operating at a loss, has a number of projects to reduce costs and raise production, but it can't find any outside money on reasonable terms. The ruble crisis has been a powerful factor for rethinking the role of local farms. "Today, after the economic downfall, our business people have noticed that the buyer is turning to Russian produce, and they have started knocking at the doors [of Russian producers]," said Nikolai Morochek, first deputy chief of the Primorye Agriculture Department. The Vladivostok Meat Processing Plant, mainly supplied with imported raw meat products, is negotiating to purchase more local meat. The plant is hoping to raise its share of local meat from 3 percent to 100 percent. "We issue guarantees and place orders in advance with local farms, and we do everything to buy as much as possible locally," said plant's director Vitaly Yakovlev. Reviving agriculture promises to be difficult. One major concern is that Russians can't produce enough to meet the increased number of customers after a long slump. "Russians gain in terms that the demand for Russian produce has risen," said Morochek. "But we can't fill market demands because production is down."
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