5,000 visitors, 300 exhibitors, 12 strategic agreements on development of the agroindustrial complex: on August 28–30, the 33^rd International Agroindustrial Exhibition «AGRORUS 2024» was held at the EXPOFORUM Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The official opening ceremony of the Exhibition took place on August 28. Vice-Governor Stanislav Kazarin read out the welcoming address to the participants from Aleksander Beglov, Governor of St. Petersburg.

«The Exhibition «AGRORUS» is one of the most outstanding events in the business life of St. Petersburg. The Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin stressed that agriculture is developing at a high pace. The products of domestic manufacturers are supplied to 130 countries worldwide.

St. Petersburg significantly contributes to developing agriculture. The processing industry actively develops in the city, and manufacturing high-quality food products grows. In the Northern Capital, agricultural science takes a leading position. Over 30 thousand citizens are engaged in the industry», wrote Beglov.

Oleg Malashchenko, Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Leningrad Region, Chairman of the Committee for Agroindustrial and Fishery Complex, spoke about achievements of the agricultural sector of Region 47.

«Today, the food processing industry of the Leningrad Region fills niches to be previously occupied by imported food products. We have learned making both Spanish jamon and French cheese. Moreover, quality often surpasses that of foreign originals», stated Malashchenko.

The ceremony was also participated by Vadim Katenev, President of the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry Union, Aleksey Kolchik, Director of the St. Petersburg Regional Branch of Rosselkhozbank JSC, Oleg Emtsev, Head of the Northwestern Interregional Rosselkhoznadzor Administration, and Sergey Voronkov, General Director of EXPOFORUM International.

«This year EXPOFORUM celebrates 10 years. I can say that over the years, the agroindustrial sector has come so far where the country could not have come for decades before. Most of the imports have been substituted, and leadership positions in the export of products have been taken. At present, agriculture is a driver of the country’s economic development», said Voronkov.

The Exhibition brought together over 300 exhibitors from Russia, Belarus, Turkey and China. The domestic agroindustrial complex was presented by companies of 35 regions — from the Leningrad Region to the Amur one. St. Petersburg, the Republic of Dagestan, as well as the Novosibirsk and Leningrad Regions took part presenting their collective expositions. Region 47 was represented by enterprises from all 17 districts.

Thematic sections of the Exhibition: Equipment for the food processing industry; Animal husbandry and veterinary medicine; Crop production (breeding, fertilizers, plant protection products); Packaging, storage, transportation, recycling; IT solutions for agriculture; Food additives and ingredients; Food products.

At the Exhibition, unique novelties were presented, including:

• Microbiological preparations for crop production and animal husbandry;
• Stainless-steel food processing equipment;
• Potato planters and cultivators;
• Storage and transportation systems for bulk materials;
• Veterinary drugs and vaccines against carnivorous plague, parvovirus and coronavirus enterites, adenovirus infection, rabies, panleukopenia, calicivirosis and viral rhinotracheitis (Federal Centre for Animal Health);
• Digital online farmland maps;
• Safe fertilizers of prolonged release for increasing productivity of crops;
• Animal embryo transplantation developments, developments of the microclonal propagation laboratory, unmanned aircraft systems for agriculture.

The core event of the «AGRORUS 2024» Congress Program was the Plenary Session «Trends in Agriculture Development. Prospection».

Oleg Malashchenko, Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Leningrad Region, Chairman of the Committee on Agroindustrial and Fishery Complex, spoke about results of the work in the regional agricultural sector. According to him, in 2023, the total amount of manufacturing and processing of products in the agroindustrial complex increased by 32 billion rubles and exceeded 410 billion rubles.

The meeting was also participated by Aleksey Kolchik, Director of the St. Petersburg Regional Branch of Rosselkhozbank JSC, Oleg Emtsev, Head of the Northwestern Interregional Rosselkhoznadzor Administration, Vitaly Morozov, Rector of St. Petersburg State Agrarian University, and Aleksander Bryukhanov, Director of the Institute of Agroengineering and Environmental Problems of Agricultural Production.

The «AGRORUS» venue hosted the AgroForum «Young Scientists and Active Youth. Development of the Agroindustrial Complex, Rural Tourism and Rural Areas». The Organizers were ANO «SOBYTIE»; St. Petersburg State Agricultural University, with the support of the Committee for Youth Policy and Interaction with Public Organizations.

At the Session «Innovations in Agriculture», they told how high technologies are actively used in the agricultural sector, helping effectively implement import substitution, as well as maintain food security and independence of Russia.

The ecosystem «Own Farming», a single point of access to the latest agroindustrial technologies, was presented at the Session «Technologies and Solutions for Agribusiness».

The Business Contact Centre (BCC) was open for 2 days: September 28 — International Retail Day and September 29 — International HoReCa Day. Over 500 negotiations of major customers and suppliers took place. Russia — Colombia Day was held, as well. The delegation of this Latin American country held meetings and discussed the export/import of various products: coffee, cocoa, textiles, etc. Foreign participants of the BCC were also represented by Belarus, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan.

On August 30, the Leningrad Region Day was held at the Exhibition. The opening ceremony was attended by Aleksander Drozdenko, the Governor of Region 47, who made a number of key signings.

«The Leningrad Region is a leader in agriculture. We produce 40% of all food products in the Northwestern Federal District. The agroindustrial complex of the Leningrad Region is the high-tech, innovated, digital, modern production. The portfolio of investments in the agricultural sector is 100 projects worth 50 billion rubles. Today, at «AGRORUS», it has grown by another 12.5 billion rubles, and has been replenished with 12 new projects», said the Governor.

Among the projects:

• opening the chocolate factory «Putevodnaya Zvezda»;
• 4 major poultry projects to increase the export capacity by 10%;
• constructing a full-cycle meat processing plant;
• 5 agreements on reconstruction and expansion of existing dairy farms;
• the agreement on socioeconomic cooperation in providing regional agricultural producers with IT and information services for searching sellers or purchasers of agricultural products, goods and services.

Aleksander Drozdenko also spoke at the Freshman Day of St. Petersburg State Agrarian University. 2,000 future specialists received their student ID cards. Drozdenko noted that many graduates of the University are employed at the enterprises of the agroindustrial complex in the Leningrad Region.

On the City Gardener Day, Andrey Lyakh, Head of the Department for Development of Gardening and Horticulture of St. Petersburg, told about the long-term trend of increasing citizens’ interest in living outside the stone jungle. According to him, in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, there are over 3 thousand community gardening groups, in which more than 700 thousand allotments are located.

7 Grand Prix, 108 gold medals and 15 silver medals were awarded to the winners of the «Gold Medal» Competition under the auspices of Russia’s Ministry of Agriculture.

In parallel with the Exhibition, agricultural fairs were held in the open area of EXPOFORUM. The Leningrad Region Farmers’ Fair was open from August 28 to September 1, and the Fair «AGRORUS 2024» — from August 28 to September 8. Record-breaking 70,000 guests came to EXPOFORUM for shopping.