Official website of the President of Russia

Transcripts   /

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Kosov, agricultural leasing has been functioning for 20 years, investing over 400 billion rubles in the agro-industrial sector, with more than one-third of this sum invested during the last four years. You operate in all regions of Russia and you have achieved success.

Let us hear about it, one thing at a time.

General Director Pavel Kosov: You are quite right. Last year, the company celebrated its 20^th anniversary. It has a long and interesting history.

I would like to dwell on the company’s current role in the development of the agro-industrial sector and on its development prospects. We have prepared a presentation, which I would like to submit, if I may.

You have cited absolutely correct figures: the total amount of investment is 400 billion rubles, with the last four years accounting for one-third of this sum. We annually increase the amount of equipment purchased. In fact, this is a balanced strategy that includes both public support, our operations on the foreign currency bond market, and leaseback payments.

Our loss-free operations over the last few years have enabled us to invest leasing payments on a grand scale in equipment purchases. We see that we can develop dynamically and we see development prospects. It is quite important to note that the equipment we purchase remains in the fields and continues to work even after the expiry of the leasing contracts.

We are expansive in the geographical sense and operate in all regions. Absolutely everyone has equal access to our products and services.

A good example of our “salvo” supplies is the delivery of equipment to the Republic of Crimea exactly two months after that region joined the Russian Federation. It should be said that this is the biggest region, where 50 percent of equipment used in the fields has been purchased through the Rosagroleasing system. We are continuing this work.

We have a vast client database with over 15,000 customers. It is very important to note that small and medium-sized companies account for 80 percent of the total number of customers. All of them can buy equipment manufactured at our plants in the Russian Federation.

We are doing all this from our office in Moscow, which employs no more than 400 people. We have no regional offices or subsidiaries. All this was made possible by the fact that, over the past few years, we have been actively developing our digital data platform that now also includes a mobile app.

Our performance confirms the company’s efficiency as a reliable partner during technical and technological modernisation and as a partner of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation. Since 2018, we have expanded our operations three times over, and we have boosted supply volumes from 17 billion rubles to 53 billion rubles.

It is very important to note here that, as the slide shows, our programmes have made it possible to eliminate a negative long-term trend that had evolved over the decades, that is, when we scrapped more equipment than was purchased. We can see that, since 2020, equipment procurement volumes have increased appreciably, and we are now scrapping less equipment. We believe that our company has also contributed to this process.

Apart from our main efforts to purchase and lease out equipment, we have been implementing major investment projects in the field of import substitution and expanded exports. Our portfolio includes many such projects, and I would like to dwell on two of them.

The first project deals with an ice cream plant in Tutayev, in the Yaroslavl Region. It has received investment worth 2.5 billion rubles, and over 1,000 jobs have been created there.

The Nadezhdinskoye priority development area (PDA) not far from Vladivostok in the Primorye Territory is our second enterprise manufacturing fodder additives, probiotics and antibiotics for animals. Mr President, you opened this enterprise during the 2021 Far Eastern Economic Forum.

Today, the enterprise is working three shifts, 24 hours a day, now that we have stopped importing similar products from European countries, and this is highly appropriate. Generally speaking, it is ready to fully meet the Russian agro-industrial sector’s demand for these products.

Vladimir Putin: Fine, thank you.

<…>