Russia will achieve 100% self-sufficiency in apples by 2028

Russia will achieve 100% self-sufficiency in apples by 2028. The Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation Oksana Lut said this in an exclusive interview with Izvestia at the SPIEF.

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"Due to the spring frosts, we potentially will not reach about 100 thousand tons. Nevertheless, due to the high pace of gardening and intensification of production, we plan to receive about 2.1 million tons of fruit and berry products. This includes about 2 million tons of apples, which is 200 thousand tons more than last year's harvest. Last year, the president instructed us to accelerate our self-sufficiency in apples. Since this year, we have significantly increased our support for gardening — up to 7.5 billion rubles annually. We expect that this will allow us to meet our own apple needs by 100% as early as 2028," Oksana Lut explained.

According to her, weather disasters will continue to affect the industry.

"In this regard, the most effective risk protection tool for farmers is agricultural insurance with state support, which gives confidence in the preservation and development of business. This year, a record 7 billion rubles have been allocated to finance this instrument from budgets of all levels. We expect that this will increase the share of insured acreage from 19.5% to 21%. We will continue to develop this measure of support," she explained to Izvestia.

Read more in an exclusive interview with Izvestia:

"There has never been an example of such rapid development of the agricultural sector in the world as in Russia"