Sixth Conference for Agrarian Investors

More than 100 directors and owners of the largest agricultural businesses, investment companies and banks attended the sixth annual Agroholding Russia conference organized by Agroinvestor magazine.

The main theme of the conference was the economic crisis and the result of its influence on the entire agricultural market.

Leading specialists, market analysts, and agricultural company owners and top managers discussed questions such as state policy and budgetary support for agriculture, whether there are any growth prospects for the agro industry considering that the country’s gross domestic product is falling and which business development strategies local and federal agroholding companies are choosing now?

The conference ended with a roundtable discussion at which agroholding directors discussed the five most pressing problems for agribusiness in 2009: rising credit prices and “collateral discounts,” consequences of the falling milk and cheese product prices, the risks and volatility of grain prices, the rising price of foreign and domestic agricultural equipment and the increase in manufacturing expenditures amidst conditions of lower margins.