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Stavropol Held a Workshop on Russian Regions Agri Exports

On June 14, Stavropol held a seminar “Russian regions agri exports: sources for growth” organized jointly by the Agroexport Federal Center, MGIMO and the Stavropol State Agrarian University. The event was conducted as part of the MGIMO strategic project “Institute of World Agricultural Markets” under the governmental program supporting Russian universities “Priority 2030”. The seminar took place in a combined format (offline and online) and gathered more than 150 participants.

The meeting was opened by Ivan Atanov, Vice-Rector for Educational Affairs and Youth Policy at Stavropol State Agrarian University. He said that the challenges facing the Russian agricultural industry require management personnel to be specialists not only in agriculture, but also in international trade. He wished the participants who attended the seminar to gain new knowledge that will help them in their professional activities.

The Russian Ministry of Agriculture and the Agroexport started to cooperate with MGIMO 5 years ago by organizing the university’s master’s program “World Agricultural Markets”, recalled Artem Malgin, Vice-Rector for Development of MGIMO. Currently, the Institute of World Agricultural Markets is being created under the governmental program supporting Russian universities “Priority 2030”. “IWAM is supposed to become an expert center established by MGIMO and the Russian Ministry of Agriculture represented by the Agroexport involving the representatives of the agrarian economy and the largest farms, which will work both in the educational and research areas related to agri exports and imports, legal and economic assistance,” – he added.

Foreign trade plays an increasingly important role in terms of agricultural stability and dynamics, said Dmitry Krasnov, Head of the Agroexport. In 2021, 16% of the total volume of Russian agricultural products was exported. “Today, without export, it’s hard to imagine production development. When investment companies are looking for potential investment objects, they frequently ask themselves what circle of buyers and consumers is defined in a project as a priority. Investment companies very often refuse to cooperate with projects that don’t export their products. Today, therefore, we are talking not only about exports development, but also about how to improve and further develop the domestic agro-industrial complex,” – Krasnov concluded.

Vitaly Nagalin, Head of the Sectoral Development Department of the Agroexport, pointed out global trends that determine agriсultural export development. He also touched upon the importance of agriculture for Russia in general and for its regions in particular. “Agro-industrial complex export is the fastest growing Russian export segment. It will be developed due to an increase in deliveries to the most promising markets, – he said. – In addition to Southeast Asian, Indian, African and Middle Eastern markets are targeted for expanding supplies.”

The Project Manager of the Agroexport Georgy Semyonov highlighted steps that should be done before the beginning of export deliveries. He presented three approaches to export development, dwelling in more detail on the life cycle of an export project. Georgy believes that still at the research stage, there are three questions for a region to be answered: which products are a priority in terms of export, which markets are the most promising, and what state support measures it can benefit from. The decisions made at this stage will determine the return on investment.

Varvara Makeeva, Head of the Regional Analytics Department of the Agroexport, analyzed Russia’s subjects export potential. In particular, she touched upon the factors influencing agri export development, as well as the components of regions export profile. She also paid attention to the analysis methods of the most promising directions of Russian subjects export.

Finalizing the seminar, the Head of the Division for Investment Potential Development and Export Infrastructure of the Sectoral Development Department of the Agroexport Alexey Pankratov unveiled approaches to management decisions-making and provided participants with specific examples of export potential development in Russian regions. In his opinion, a pragmatic and well-planned management action could bring the agri export of a region to a higher level of sustainability and international competitiveness.

The second part of the workshop was held in the format of a business game, during which participants learned to analyze the factors influencing Russian subjects export potential, model optimal management decisions and work out regional export development programs. Dmitry Gorin, Head of the Department for Foreign Markets and Export Potential Analytics of the Agroexport, helped as an expert the teams evaluate the most promising products and markets for expanding export deliveries.

The event’s distributive is available on our website.