Good prospects for extending agricultural cooperation

The prospects for development of Russian and Bahrain agricultural cooperation were discussed in the Chamber of commerce and industry of the Russian Federation attended by the delegation of the Kingdom of Bahrain. The meeting has been sponsored by Russian-Bahraini and Bahraini-Russian business councils. The Bahraini delegation was headed by executive board member of Bahraini Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Chairman of Food Committee Khaled al Rashid al Amin.

The Chief Operating Officer of Russian-Bahraini business council Kamo Babloyan has mentioned there has been favorable political background established recently. Russian-Bahraini and Bahraini-Russian business councils make every effort to facilitate cooperation between business communities of the both countries and find areas of common interests.

Russian-Bahraini intergovernmental panel founded this year and headed by the ministers of trade and industry of the both states is going to be a very practical mechanism for developing bilateral trade and economic relations. Kamo Babloyan said intergovernmental panels were far from always headed by ministers. This certain event has shown Russia’s serious approach to development and enhancement of cooperation with Bahrain.

Bahrain is also targeted at developing trade and economic relations with Russia. According to the latest assessments a commodity turnover between two countries is approximately $10 mln. ‘Our goal is to increase this sum up to $100 mln at least,’ emphasized Khaled al Rashid al Amin.

The Bahraini representatives offered to create a headquarters within Bahraini borders which would be dedicated to providing any assistance including money to those Russian businessmen who would decide to start activities in the Kingdom. Khaled Al Rashid Al Amin was sorry to say that recently there had been no regular export from Russia while the other Gulf States needed Russian products too.

The Chairman of council of ministers of Crimea, Crimean permanent representative under the President of the Russian Federation Georgy Muradov has in details described great opportunities of establishing supplies of agricultural products from Southern Russia to Bahrain. ‘There are gates in our hands which lead into the Persian Gulf through Bahrain and into the Southern Russia through Crimea, where Black Sea international cooperation association has been recently established,’ he also said. Crimea is the only Russian free economic area. Georgy Muradov has also said that building up any type of production including agricultural processing for Bahraini needs requires one and half less money than it does in any other place in Russia or other countries.

Even today Russia can conclude contracts with Bahrain to deliver approximately 300 thousand tons of wheat, class 3 and 4, 140 thousand tons of barley, 180 thousand tons of top-grade flour. There are also great opportunities of working in other areas. Thus, Crimea can offer high yield of top-grade vegetables and fruit, halal meat produced according to long traditions. However Crimea has insufficient number of agricultural processing enterprises.

Georgy Muradov has offered Bahraini businessmen to have their factories involved in producing flour, preserved food, compotes and any other goods needed by Bahrain. He mentioned Crimea was open for any agreements with Bahrain and exchange of delegations. The participants of the meeting have also spoke about opportunities of investing in agricultural infrastructure; discussed innovative technologies of producing clean potable water, acoustic freezing, use of drones in agriculture, Bahrain-dedicated ecosystem blockchain.

In the end of the event the parties exchanged opinions as to issues of mutual interest. The meeting was followed by a working lunch at Expocentr Exhibition Complex. The Bahraini delegation has been received by Executive Director of Expocentr S.Bednov.