Largest agricultural machinery exhibition in Russia

Outstanding results were achieved by the agricultural machinery event AgroTech Russia with 519 exhibitors from 21 countries and 30,000 visitors – an increase of 25% in terms of exhibition area. Venue was the All-Russia Exhibition Centre (VVC) in Moscow from 10 to 14 October 2008 as part of the ”Golden Autumn“ Russian Agricultural Exhibition. The world’s leading agricultural machinery and technology producers were represented at the event – 42 percent of exhibitors being from outside Russia. Innovations and further developments were highlighted on an exhibition area of over 56,000 m2 with a newly built 25,000 m2 modern exhibition hall premiered. Most of the visitors were specialists from large-scale farming operations in all regions of Russia and the results firmly underlined AgroTech’s position as largest and most important agricultural machinery exhibition in Russia.

Putin wants modernisation in agriculture to continue apace

The mood in the Russian agricultural sector continues to be characterised by a massive move towards more modernisation with government support of particular importance. At the exhibition Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced availability of low-interest credit for agricultural machinery makers as well as subsidies for fuel purchase and reduction of credit interest for farmers. Putin also pointed out that the sum of over 34 billion roubles was available to help finance farm equipment purchases and that some 1500 billion roubles were earmarked for future support of agricultural production as part of the state programme for development of the agricultural economy. During the AgroTech Russia opening event speakers, headed by Alexej Gordeev Russia’s Minister of Agriculture, emphasised the outstanding importance of modern agricultural mechanisation in increasing food supply security within the Russian Federation. They demonstrated their conviction that AgroTech Russia represented an outstanding information platform for displaying innovative technologies with a high standard of information available to machinery dealers as well as professional farmers and investors.
 

A programme with 27 discussion forums and conferences

The AgroTech Russia technical programme included a total 27events with around 3,500 expert participants. Central event was the international conference "Strategies for Developing Technical Resources for Agricultural Producers in Russia“ under the chairmanship of Leonid Orsik, Director of the Department for Scientific-technical Policy and Education within the Russian Ministry of Agriculture. Further speakers included representatives of the federal and regional ministries for agriculture within the Russian Federation, representatives of Russian and international farm machinery producer associations and specialists from the Rosselkhosbank  and Rosagroleasing financial institutions. The talks revealed concrete and ambitious targets: an increase in self-sufficiency for production of tractors, forage and cereal harvesters, cultivators and seed drills in Russia from the current 50 to 60 percent to between 80 and 90 percent by 2012. Urgent requirements to help meet such targets were identified as additional financing possibilities for purchase of farm equipment plus increasing promotion of science and education with more access to modern technology.

Further discussion events and conferences covered subjects including modern cultivation and husbandry methods in crop production, agricultural machinery supply to farms and its application in precision farming, use of resource-saving technology and modernisation of forage production and sowing techniques.

The organisers will continue to expand AgroTech Russia on the present VVC exhibition grounds with this traditional exhibition centre for agricultural events in Russia planning extensive development on the site towards a goal of 188,000m2 of hall floorspace by 2012 along with further improvement of supporting infrastructure.

The next AgroTech Russia within “Golden Autumn” takes place 9 to 13 October 2009.