Russia & Ukraine to conquer poultry markets in third countries

CHERKASSY, Ukraine, August 3 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Agriculture
Minister Aleksey Gordeyev has visited one of Ukraine's leading poultry
meat plants "Nasha Ryaba" in the Cherkassy region.

"Time has come to start integrating Russian and Ukrainian businesses in the production of broiler chicken," Gordeyev told reporters on Saturday.

During a visit to the poultry meat plant Aleksey Gordeyev and Governor of Russia's Belgorod region Yevgeny Savchenko studied the possibility of introducing new technologies in the production of poultry meat.

"We stressed the need to exert joint effort to develop poultry
breeding in Russia, to conquer our internal market and solve the problem of substitution of imports with domestic products," Gordeyev went on to say. Prospects of entering the markets of third countries were also a topic for discussion.

Speaking about an agrarian exhibition titled "The All Ukrainian Field Day" that has recently opened in the Dnepropetrovsk region, Gordeyev said that the agrarian ministers of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus have decided to coordinate agricultural policy and regulate the food markets and submit relevant proposals to the governments in their respective countries.

The Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian agrarian ministers also agreed that each of the three countries would host forums on urgent agricultural problems every year. Gordeyev said that the first such forum would be held in Ukraine in 2009.

On Saturday, the Russian agriculture minister visited a museum of
Ukrainian national poet Taras Shevchenko and laid flowers on his grave.

"The works of Taras Shevchenko - a poet, artist and people's
philosopher - helped the Russian people to better understand and learn the Ukrainian culture and history," Gordeyev emphasized.