Zubkov to discuss tractormobile project in Novgorod tour

MOSCOW, June 30 (Itar-Tass) - Prospects for an increase in the
production of poultry meat and proposals on the development of up-to-date
farm machinery, a tractormobile, in particular, will be the focus of
attention of Viktor Zubkov, First Vice-Premier of the Russian Federation
(RF), during a tour of Novgorod Region on Tuesday.
An RF government official has told journalists that Zubkov will attend
a ceremony marking the start-up of a complex for poultry-raising and for
an advanced processing of poultry meat, the Belgrankorm - Veliky Novgorod,
with a capacity of up to 42,000 tonnes of poultry meat a year.
By its output, the poultry-farming complex will rank third in the
North-West and tenth in Russia. The cost of the project is 2,900 million
roubles, including 2,300 million roubles in borrowed funds. The bringing
the project into effect will make it possible fully to meet the Novgorod
Region's requirements for poultry meat and create prerequisites to
substitute imported foods in the shops of neighbouring regions, including
St Petersburg.
An official at the regional administration press center has told
Itar-Tass that the First Vice-Premier is also planning to visit the public
joint-stock company, the Podberyozsky bakery complex, to discuss the
formation of an interregional organisation for the storage, procesisng and
sale of food and forage grain.
The programme for Zubkov's tour also provides for a conference to
examine, on the strength of the Novgorod Region example, the problems and
experience in the development APK non-black-soil regions of Russia. The
choice of venue for such a conference is not fortuitous, for Novgorod
Region is typical of Russia's non-black-soil zone: one-third of the
population live in the coutnryside, while the share of rural output is not
more than ten percent, the RF government official recalled. Participants
in the conference will discuss ways to overcome this imbalance.
The conference will be the first one in a series of meetings and
consultations that the First Vice-Premier intends to hold during visits to
areas concerned. The development of the Siberian APK is expected to be the
subject of discussion at next conference which is to be held in Tyumen on
July 10.
The main task, Zubkov believes, is to ensure maximum effect of
government measures in support for the APK in the light of the downturn,
and check their feasibility in "field" conditions. The First Vice-Premier
intends to sum up the results of trips at a meeting with leading agrarian
business executives. The meeting is slated for the second half of July.