MOSCOW, April 14 (RIA Novosti) - The state should not participate in state purchases of agricultural raw materials on a large scale, Minister of Agriculture Alexei Gordeyev said at a Duma session.
According to the minister, "the state should not buy and sell anything, unless for special needs linked to defence, security and other purposes of the kind." At the same time, Alexei Gordeyev confirmed the role of the state in regulating prices for socially significant types of bread in the pricing processes in federation members.
As for disproportionate prices for agricultural raw materials and food products, the agriculture minister said, "monopolies should have no influence on agricultural producers," and did not rule it out that this question might require a legal solution.
Mr. Gordeyev assigned priority to adopting the federal law On the development of the Russian agriculture up to 2010, this year.
