Stavropol Krai is the geographic center for two federal areas – Southern Federal District and North-Caucasus Federal District.

The favorable climate determines the agricultural orientation in the regional economy.

Agriculture is the major sector of Stavropol Krai's economy now employing about 215,000 people.

Stavropol Krai is one of the leading agricultural areas of Russia. The region is mostly located in steppe and semi-desert areas. The soils mostly include black earth (southern and ordinary) and brown (light-brown, brown, and dark-brown). Dominant are miscellaneous wild and gramineous grasses and gramineous steppes, while in the East and North-West the flora includes wormwood and gramineous grasses with salt marsh and saline soils. The steppes are mostly plowed fields.

The total area used for agricultural needs (as of January 1, 2013) is 6,100.6 th. ha including agricultural land – 5,659.3 th. ha of which tilled soil – 3,957.7 th. ha (69.9%); lealand – 10.6 th. ha (0.7%); fodder-producing areas – 1.648.7 th. ha (29.1%); perennial plantations – 42.3 th. ha (0.7%).

The structure of the cultivated land includes grains (73%); oil seeds & plants used in industry (17 %); forage crops – (8%) with the remaining 2% being for other various plants.

Crop farming, which accounts for 67% of the gross agricultural economy, prevails in the agricultural economy. Small-scale farms provide up to 40% of the entire gross product in the area.

Agriculture specializes in growing wheat grain, while the region expands areas under cultures that enjoy a stable demand in the market – sugar beet; legumes; oil flax; corn grain, and autumn-field rape plant.

The leading areas of cattle-breeding are beef- and dairy-cattle breeding, as well as fine-wool sheep-breeding.

Besides, well developed are such activities as horticulture; vine-growing; pig farming; poultry farming, and bee-breeding.

The region yields huge amount of grain, which represents a significant share in the entire Russian product (8.8 mln tons – wheat grain and corn); sunflower seeds – 411.1 th. tons); sugar beet – 1.7 mln tons).*

*as of 2014

Based on the indicators for 2014, Stavropol Krai is the top third region by the gross yield of legumes and grains; top 4^th by the gross yield of corn; top 1^st by sugar beet harvest, and is the top 3^rd by the gross yield of grapes.

Rated among the leaders in wheat grain production, in 2014 Stavropol Krai produced a gross harvest of 6.9 mln tons of this culture, of which 82.8 % of food quality.

The regional cattle-breeding involves beef- and dairy-cattle breeding, poultry farming, sheep-breeding, bee-breeding, and fish-farming.

The share of cattle-breeding in the general structure of the regional agriculture reaches 31%.

Stavropol Krai is the top 5^th Russian region in producing store cattle and poultry /live weight/ 3.1% of the total production in Russia); the 13^th from top region in milk production (2.2%), and the 23drd in egg production (1.9%).**

** as of 2013

The regional agriculture is a dynamically progressing and potentially promising activity in the local economy, which has been showing a stable profitability in the latest three years (19%), while the number of profitable enterprises in agriculture is 95%.

Of the total gross product in the region, agriculture accounts for 13% thus rating the top 3^rd among the basic fields in the local economy.

While dwelling on the regional agriculture economy, mention is to be made of the comprehensive approach to developing the area, as well as the traditionally strong public support within a wide range of issues – from crop-growing to cattle-breeding and resolving social issues in the rural areas.

The Governmental public support provided to agriculture in 2013 exceeded RUR 6 bln (13% above the level of 2012), which included crop growing – RUR 2.7 bln; cattle-breeding – RUR 1.0 bln; subsidy on loan interest – RUR 2.0 bln; miscellaneous support – RUR 0.3 bln.

In order to substitute imported good with the similar local ones, as well as to enhance (self)-employment among the rural population through creating new jobs, and to develop the rural infrastructure, Ministry of Agriculture of Stavropol Krai has launched a public program (Development of Agriculture), which is a set of economically meaningful measures to promote beef- and dairy cattle-breeding; protected horticulture; support to new farms and developing family cattle-breeding farms; melioration, and sustainable development of rural areas. Besides, the public support to the agricultural economy in the region involves 36 areas the major of them being:

Compensation for loan interest (short-term investment loans, for small-scale farms);

Free support in horticulture (per 1 ha of cultivated crop area);

Hail suppression;

Chemical protection for plants;

Vine-growing and fruit-farming;

Partial compensation for insurance costs;

Support to pedigree livestock breeding, including beef and dairy cattle-breeding, and sheep-breeding;

Partial compensation for agricultural machinery and equipment costs.

All such measures produce an obviously visible result.

Despite significant dependency on weather conditions for each particular year, the regional agriculture has demonstrated profitability of around 20% in the recent three years, while the same index in the entire regional economy is 7%. The share of profitable agricultural enterprises is over 95%, which is 10% above the average regional level in general.

Most social indices also show a stable positive dynamics – the growth of wages in the agricultural sector (in the recent three years) is comparable to that of the region in general – 16,000 RUR (2013) thus exceeding the level of 2012 (14,000 RUR). In 2013 alone, 1.8 th. of new jobs were created through local measures and programs for agriculture.

In the years of running social programs, the share of houses in the rural areas that got connected to the common natural gas line reached 91.6%, while the number of the rural population supplied with fresh water of proper quality reached 84.0%.

It is mostly due to the public support and special preferential measures, as well as developing infrastructure in the rural areas, that the agricultural sector of Stavropol Krai has developed a climate favorable for investment – the major investment attracted to the regional agriculture in 2013 was RUR 9.8 bln (5.4% above that in 2012).

In 2011-2013 the agricultural sector of Stavropol Krai completed 33 investment sectors with a total capacity of over RUR 16.5 bln and 1,983 jobs created.

11 investment projects have been planned for the next year with their total cost exceeding RUR 5.5 bln and up to 1,000 new jobs launched.

Stavropol Krai is an active trade partner for more than 100 countries all over the world.

The major importers of agricultural produce of Stavropol Krai are:

Abkhazia (wheat flour; mineral water);

Austria (legumes);

Azerbaijan (wheat; barley; wheat flour; sunflower seed oil; mineral water);

Armenia (wheat; wheat flour; sunflower seed oil);

Georgia (wheat; wheat flour; alimentary products; oilseed meal);

Israel (wheat; ice-cream; alimentary products; mineral water);

India (legumes);

Iran (wheat; corn; barley; sunflower seed oil; oilseed meal);

Spain (sunflower seed oil);

Italy (sunflower seed oil; oilseed meal; corn, wheat; mineral fertilizers);

Kirgizstan (wheat; corn);

Moldova (wheat flour; alimentary products; mineral water);

UAE (legumes);

Poland (mineral water; oilseed meal);

Saudi Arabia (barley);

Syria (sunflower seed oil);

Turkmenistan (wheat; wheat flour; sunflower seed oil; alimentary products);

Turkey (wheat; sunflower seed oil);

Uzbekistan (wheat flour; sunflower seed oil);

South Ossetia (corn; wheat flour).

8 largest agricultural holdings operate in Stavropol Krai – Agrico; LLC StavropolAgroSoyuz; Resource, etc. 12 of the regional agricultural companies rate among the 300 top best Russian agricultural producers.

In view of the existing agricultural production, there is still significant growth potential in the following areas:

Fruit farming (over 300 %);

Beef cattle-breeding (over 150 %);

Vine-growing (over 120 %);

Poultry farming (up to 100%);

Sugar beet growing (up to 100 %).

The processing potential in agriculture is significant:

Corn (up to 150%);

Sugar beet (up to 150%);

Sunflower (up to 100%);

Milk (up to 100%).

The following factors ensure Stavropol Krai's competitive advantage in the agricultural sector of Russia:

Economic-geographical location and climate, which allows production of basically all the most important agricultures.