Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization is important for its industry in that it should encourage producers to improve the competitiveness of their products. So one of the important goals is to modernize processing enterprises to manufacture products that would be competitive in terms of quality and price on both the domestic and international markets, Agricultural Minister Yelena Skrynnik said at a news conference.

The government will help the agricultural sector achieve this goal, she said. Agricultural producers will not suffer any losses from the country’s accession to the WTO, she assured. When asked whether accession was a detriment to farmers, she said, “I am not saying it is a detriment, I am saying that we need to work a lot.”