October 23 2006, 10:12

The conference "Produce Business in Russia 2006" aroused great interest among produce businessmen of the country

Past week Moscow witnessed a historical event for the produce business in Russia - the first international conference "Produce business in Russia 2006". For the first time the leading experts of this business gathered in one conference hall to discuss the state and perspectives of this industry development.

The conference was organized by the informational agency APK-INFORM RUSSIA and the company "Expomedia Events Russia" under support of the Agricultural Marketing Project. The event was conducted in the framework of the exhibition IFE FreshProduce on October 17th - 18th 2006 on the territory of EXPOCENTER on Krasnaya Presnya. Among the conference participants there were the largest Russian producers of vegetables, fruits and processed commodities, importers and suppliers of produce commodities, providers of technology solutions and storage equipment, produce handling and packing, the representatives of retail chains, the suppliers of logistics solutions, and also the representatives of the Department of Food Resources in Moscow, and the Moscow Inspection of Agricultural Commodity Quality Control.

The participants of the event found the experts' analytical reports to be the most interesting for them; the reports focused on the state and perspectives of the development of Russian and world produce markets. The speakers paid special attention to the cooperation opportunities with the produce business in CIS countries; this business is rapidly losing ground on Russian market.

The dynamic development of fruit and vegetable production in Ukraine has become real news for many participants; though the wholesale trade of fruits and vegetables do not develop by the same fast rates in the country. As a result, some large Russian wholesalers decided to visit Kyiv in December in order to participate in the third international conference "Fruits and Vegetables of Ukraine 2006. Open Market" with the hope to study the opportunities to enter Ukrainian market.

To the opinion of Andriy Yarmak, the Deputy Director of the Agricultural Marketing Project, both producers and processors of fruit and vegetable commodities, as well as trade and infrastructure representatives of this sector demonstrated a true interest to the first international conference. This fact proves the deficit of the quality market information observed on the Russian Federation market. In its turn, this factor suppresses the development of the most important sector for national agriculture. This business is more profitable than all oil and grain crops production.

The participants of the conference unanimously agreed that the conference "Produce Business Russia 2006" should be traditional. That's why this week the organizers of the event start preparing the second international conference "Produce Business 2007" which is tentatively planned for October 24th-25th 2007 in Moscow.