Naum Babaev made a speech at the 5-th CONGRESS of SOYUZMOLOKO

“Russia should set more ambitious goals,” said Naum Babayev, Chairman of the Board of Directors of “Rusmolco” and “Damate” speaking at the 5-th Congress of the National Union of milk producers.

Chairman of the Board of Directors of LLC “MC “Rusmolco” and Group of companies “Damate” Naum Babaev took part in the 5-th Congress of the National Union of milk producers (SOYUZMOLOKO). The event was held on the 5th of February, 2014 at VVTS, Moscow in the framework of the exhibition “Agrofarm - 2014”.

The listed below well known and respected people took part in the conference: Arkady Dvorkovich (Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation), Gennady Onishchenko (assistant of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation), Airat Khairullin (first Deputy Chairman of the Committee of the state Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on agrarian issues), Dmitriy Yuriev, Deputy Minister of agriculture of the Russian Federation, Sergey Dankvert, Head of the Rosselkhoznadzor, Andrey Danilenko, Chairman of the Board SOYUZMOLOKO as well as representatives of core ministries and departments, regional bodies and relevant committees of both Chambers of Parliament and regions of Russia, producers and processors of milk from all over the country.

The main subject of Naum Babaev’s speech was the investment attractiveness of the Russian dairy industry. He noted that "to cover the growing needs of Russia, it is required to produce about 15 million tons of milk, and to ensure the global demand in milk – approximately 150 million tons. Taking into consideration the investment capacity of the dairy branch, it means US $ 40 billion of investments in Russia and US $ 400 billion in a global scale.

According to Naum Babaev, Russia today should set more ambitious goals. It needs about 30 million hectares of land to provide the world with milk. From all the countries of the world only Russia has such a resource and capable to become an exporter of dairy products instead of an importer of it. The main condition for achieving this goal is the creation of a favorable investment climate. “The investment climate is, first of all, clear, transparent and fixed rules of the game for the foreseeable long-term outlook. These rules should be equal for all the players of the market,” pointed Naum Babaev.

Naum Babaev also identified the main factors to achieve the set targets in the short-term outlook: “Milk producers should be provided with “long” (not less than 15 years) and cheap money. Funds to support the dairy farming should be specified in the budget as a separate point. And the existing system of the state support should be radically revised. The state should stimulate the investment activity".