OREANDA-NEWS. October 20, 2008. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Russia’s single largest financial investor, is with the support of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Russian Grain Union bringing together public and private sector representatives at a Moscow conference next week to debate how Russia’s agricultural potential can be unlocked, reported the press-centre of EBRD.

The October 21 conference, at which EBRD President Thomas Mirow will make an opening statement, is a follow-up to the joint EBRD/FAO conference on “Fighting food inflation through sustainable investment” held in London last March.

The Moscow conference, which is being organised in cooperation with the Russian Ministry of Agriculture, will address three key issues:

How public-private cooperation can promote investment in Russia’s agribusiness sector
How public-private investments could help remove bottlenecks in the food chain
How to educate and attract the skilled human capital the agricultural sector needs.

The EBRD and FAO believe bringing back into production some of the 23 million hectares of arable land which were left unfarmed in recent years in Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine could make a major contribution. They argue that at least 13 million hectares could be returned to production at no major environmental cost, 6 million of these in Russia alone.

Russia is already the world’s third largest grain exporter and fiffh largest producer, but a paper prepared by the FAO for last March’s London conference forecast that annual Russian grain output could rise to a theoretical maximum of 126 million tonnes should that unfarmed land be brought back into production and various other conditions be fulfilled. Should that happen, Russia could become the world’s second largest grain exporter after the United States. Russian grain production in 2008 is expected to reach at least 96 million tonnes.

Next week’s conference will hear the views of representatives of the Russian Ministry of Agriculture, major industry players, the banking sector and several of the EBRD’s key private agribusiness clients.

The EBRD has to date invested nearly EUR5 billion in close to 400 agribusiness projects in its 29 countries of operation, of which over EUR 1 billion has financed more than 40 agribusiness projects in Russia.

FAO, with 191 Member States, one Member Organization and one Associate Member, aims to raise levels of nutrition, improve agricultural productivity, better the lives of rural populations and contribute to the growth of the world economy. Achieving good security for all is at the heart of FAO’s efforts—to make sure people have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active, healthy lives. Visit the FAO website: www.fao.org