The de facto Prime Minister of Abkhazia, Alexander Ankvab, hosted a delegation of the Russian Ministry of Agriculture. The delegation was headed by Roman Nekrasov, the Director of the Department of Crop Production, Mechanization, Chemicalization and Plant Protection of the Ministry.

Alexander Malko, the Director of the Rosselhoscenter Federal State Budgetary Institute, Khamzat Belkharoev, the Vice-Director of the same institute, and Vitaly Marchenko, the Head of the Rosselhoscenter branch in Krasnodar, also visited Abkhazia together with Nekrasov.

From the Abkhaz side the delegation was met by the de facto First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture, Beslan Jopua, and the Director of the Institute of Agronomy, Lesik Aiba.

The Russian Ministry of Agriculture donated over 50 units of equipment for the development of the nursery to the Institute of Agriculture of Abkhazia: mini-tractors, plows, hydraulic trailers, cultivator-hillers.

The assistance was provided within the framework of “intergovernmental” cooperation on the development of the agricultural complex in Abkhazia. The Russian side ordered the equipment from manufacturers, some units were made specifically for Abkhazia. The equipment was assembled in Sochi.

Ankvab expressed gratitude and noted that many problems, including successful suppression of Asian bugs, were being solved through bilateral cooperation.

According to Nekrasov, the Minister, Dmitry Patrushev, directly controls cooperation with Abkhazia. Abkhazia has a great potential for growing citrus crops and Russia will help it to grow up to a million seedlings a year, said Nekrasov.