Russia embraces new trends
Russian farmers find themselves in a new reality as over the past few years, the country’s environmental protection organisations have become a force to be reckoned with. This is likely to spur demand for new agricultural technologies in the area of sustainability and animal welfare in the coming years.
BY VLADISLAV VOROTNIKOV, INDEPENDENT CORRESPONDENT R
ussian President Vladimir Putin has challenged the country’s agricultural sector to boost exports to US$ 45 billion by 2024, nearly double compared to the level achieved in 2019. In July of 2020, it was an-
nounced that the Russian government began mulling an in- troduction of a permanent grain export quota. A rationale be- hind this step could be to switch from exporting raw materials to selling products with higher added value, includ- ing poultry, pork, and dairy products. In this background, Russian leading livestock companies are rushing to expand their production facilities. However, in re- cent years new agricultural projects with increased frequency have begun encountering the resistance of environmentalists and local communities, who are afraid of smell, noise, and possible pollution. This trend seems to gain momentum in the country. “In terms of ecology, our industry is regularly facing unjustified demands livestock facilities requested to comply with,” says Sergey Yushin, chairman of the Russian National Meat Association. “Rural population insists on something impossible, for instance, a complete absence of smell from farms. Under the pressure of public opinion, big investment projects are put on halt, although their technologies envisage the very full compliance with rather strictest environmental- protection legislation”.
Smell and emissions from pig farms In Russia, federal legislation is built to allow rural populations to block building new farms or other agricultural facilities virtu- ally without any reason. This right was neglected for some time but has been often executed during the last couple of years. For example, in February of 2020, the Russian pork producer, agricultural holding Miratorg, cancelled the construction of seven pig farms in Kursk Oblast, Russia, for Rub6.5 billion
16 ▶ SUSTAINABILITY AND WELFARE | OCTOBER 2020
(US$ 100 million). Before this decision was taken, local commu- nities had been protesting against the project for six months, claiming that smell and emissions could negatively impact liv- ing conditions in local areas. Miratorg will have to relocate the farms, although there is a big chance the company could expe- rience similar problems in other parts of the country. “In our opinion, when it comes to environmental protection, it is important to maintain a balance between the interests of the livestock industry, region economies, and local popula- tion and, of course, take into account the impact of the envi- ronmental conditions on our lives. It should not be forgotten that (with new projects) we have jobs, tax incomes in regional and federal budgets, rural territories development and social issues at stake,” Yushin says.
Highly hazardous business Now Russian lawmakers are closely following the public opinion in the area of environmental protection and reacting respectively. “Recently, the Russian lawmakers proposed amendments to legislation categorising the animal and poultry farms as ‘highly hazardous’ for the environment and equalising them with toxic chemical and metallurgical enterprises,” says Albert Davleyev, president of the Russian consulting agency Agri- food strategies.
PHOTO: CHERKIZOVO
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