OREANDA-NEWS. April 25, 2014. Dmitry Patrushev, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Russian Agricultural Bank and Yuri Kovalev, Director General of the National Union of Pig-breeding Companies, accompanied by industry`s representatives and senior Bank`s executives held a working meeting on topical issues of the Russian pig-breeding business.

The parties touched upon support mechanisms for the industry and discussed joint efforts to promote faster import substitution on the national pork market. The conferees were unanimous that in spite of such risk factors like African swine fever which might have negative consequences, pig-breeding industry remains a power-house of the Russian agribusiness.

Since 2006, Russian Agricultural Bank has provided support to 456 investment projects in the industry at a total amount of RUB 89 billion. Presently, the Bank`s loan portfolio in the segment makes up around RUB 78.3 billion.

“Today, Russian Agricultural Bank pursues an important goal creating favorable conditions for the national agribusiness to boost its competitiveness on the home and international markets. We believe that our efforts will result in import substitution, growth of agricultural exports and eventually will strengthen national food security”, Dmitry Patrushev noted.