The acceptance of applications from agricultural producers for preferential transportation of grain by rail, organized by the Ministry of Agriculture, has been suspended. Annual limits for such transportation have already been exhausted in just two months of 2025, reports the newspaper "Izvestia."
According to the plan, it was planned to transport 1.92 million tons of grain, but as of February 26, the remaining amount was only 15.4 tons. Last year, such remaining amounts were only recorded by September.
Representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture confirmed the suspension of accepting applications, but noted that this year the federal government allocated more funds from the budget for preferential transportation - 8.3 billion rubles, which is 2 billion rubles more than the previous year.
"According to information on the Ministry of Agriculture's website, for 2025 it was planned to transport about 2 million tons of grain and 70 thousand tons of fish by rail at a preferential rate. Currently, the Ministry has already approved applications for the entire specified volume, so the acceptance of new applications is temporarily suspended," the Ministry of Agriculture reported.
The "People's Farmer" Association expressed concern about the exhaustion of limits for grain transportation. They note that this measure is aimed at supporting regions that have insufficient capabilities for grain export but fully provide themselves with production and need to bring it to the market. These regions, such as Siberia and the Far East, face high logistic costs due to their remoteness. The preferential tariff helped to deal with these difficulties. The loss of preferential tariffs could become a serious problem for these regions," said the association's executive director Stanislav Sankeev.
Independent grain market expert Alexander Korbut pointed out two factors that could have led to the sudden exhaustion of limits: the organization of planning the distribution of funds and possible funding restrictions from the Ministry of Finance.
Nevertheless, Korbut noted that this support measure is very important for agricultural producers, as all grain produced beyond the Urals needs transportation to Central Russia, where there is demand for this product. He expressed hope that, as in previous years when similar situations arose, funds for these purposes will be allocated," the expert added.