“We fix the growth in sales of Russian products”: what was discussed in the State Duma at a round table on import substitution in sports

The urgent problem of import substitution for Russia has become especially acute in professional sports.

In many sports, most of the necessary equipment was previously imported from other countries, and with the introduction of Western sanctions, a tangible blow was dealt to this area.

However, the state is actively working to remedy the situation.

To this end, the State Duma held a round table for the third time, the guests of which were not only representatives of the Ministry of Sports, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and federations, but also manufacturers designed to replace foreign competitors.

The meeting turned out to be useful and productive, and the parties directly spoke about the existing difficulties.

Thus, First Deputy Minister of Sports Azat Kadyrov said that it was premature to talk about solving the problem and that not enough has been done in this direction, although work is being actively carried out.

“We have data on equipping about 30 federations with equipment.

All have a high proportion of dependence on imports.

And somewhere we are talking about three dozen items, and somewhere about hundreds.

There is a potential for import substitution, but it is small.

Some items are simply not cost-effective to replace because it would be expensive.

But water will always find its way.

Various logistics routes have been worked out.

As for footwear, general equipment, the issue is being resolved, there are manufacturers.

In mass sports, we are monitoring the situation in the regions and fixing the growth in sales of domestic products, ”the functionary outlined the situation.

As one of the options, he suggested introducing elements of a planned economy in this area and changing the standards so that the same schools could regularly purchase Russian goods.

According to Kadyrov, it is necessary to further increase domestic production in order not to depend on foreign supplies, even if the market is saturated with inventory from Belarus, Kazakhstan and China.

“There is still a lot of work to be done to rise to the world level.

Professional sports are single consumption, individual orders... We need to focus on mass production,” Kadyrov summed up.

In turn, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Ekaterina Priezzheva spoke about the support of domestic businessmen.

At the end of December, a three-year set of measures for import substitution in sports was adopted, which will be financed from the federal budget in the amount of almost 1 billion rubles.

And the director of the department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade for the development of industry and socially significant goods, Dmitry Kolobov, promised to agree on a special road map by April.

“We are going to discuss it with the Ministry of Sports.

There are significant costs associated with implementation.

The implemented measures will give an incentive to producers.

A special council for professions under the president was also created.

We are going to improve professional standards.

300 million rubles will be spent annually on subsidies to domestic producers.

The volume of applications is sufficient, and we will try to satisfy everything, ”the official emphasized.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade did not rule out the introduction of special protective duties for goods coming from unfriendly states in order to protect the interests of Russian business.

But the speeches of representatives of sports federations turned out to be quite tough, but frank.

So, the head of the RRF, Viktor Maigurov, reported difficulties with ammunition in biathlon.

“We were 80% dependent on other countries.

Now there are no supplies, and our producers have sharply increased the price, plus they do not produce enough.

We made inquiries about the import line, but it will cost € 20 million. Now we have also made changes to the certification of weapons.

With us and in bullet shooting, everything is individual production.

With such legislation in this area, our sport can now be closed, ”the functionary complained.

According to him, we are talking about a colossal technical lag.

Allegedly, one of the factories located in the country is still working on the technologies of the 1930s.

The head promised to hold a joint meeting with representatives of the Russian Guard in the near future to resolve this issue, and also asked for state support.

In turn, the sports director of the All-Russian Athletics Federation, Yuri Borzakovsky, spoke about the impossibility of replacing special shoes and equipment: shots, hammers, and more.

The situation is especially difficult with poles, which are produced only in the USA.

At the same time, even if we arrange the production of everything necessary in Russia, it is necessary to certify this equipment so that the results of domestic athletes are taken into account.

“Somewhere there is an almost identical inventory, for example, in Samara.

Sports facilities are also becoming obsolete, including the surface.

In the arena of CSKA in Moscow, we can’t even replace the Italian parquet, everything was worn out, ”said Borzakovsky.

The FHR also called the level of import substitution in hockey low.

If domestic game sweaters are used, then with the rest of the ammunition, such as skates, visors, helmets, the situation is different - it has to be imported through gray schemes or parallel imports.

It is even more difficult to replace foreign refrigerators, video panels, and ventilation systems.

However, the federation expressed a desire to cooperate with Russian manufacturers and give them a technical task.

There are other types of problems as well.

In kayaking and canoeing, it is not yet possible to abandon the Portuguese and Polish boats.

In 2019, the country began to produce their own, but they are inferior in quality.

In snowboarding, they are trying to cope with dependence on foreign boards and are already buying part of their products in Russia.

But the vice-president of the Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation, Alexei Nemov, emphasized that the organization is already actively cooperating with the Ministry of Industry and Trade and receiving subsidies in order to arrange the purchase of its own gymnastic equipment.

At the same time, it will not be possible to completely abandon imported products in professional sports.

It is no coincidence that Kadyrov recalled that sometimes we are talking about very complex technologies.

At the same time, manufacturers present at the meeting emphasized the need to introduce protective duties.

Otherwise, it will be difficult for their goods to win competition from the same Chinese, who have long put their production on stream.

But according to Priezzheva, it is also impossible to blindly limit the purchase of equipment from other countries, since in this case the athletes will lose their normal equipment.

Dmitry Svishchev, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Physical Culture and Sports, summed up the results of the meeting.

He called it extremely productive and useful.

According to the deputy, in almost a year since the imposition of sanctions, a tremendous amount of work has been done. 

He noted that the main goal of the round table was the overall coordination of efforts, including between the Ministry of Sports and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, responsible for the implementation of the import substitution program.

In the near future, a special working group should be created on the basis of the State Duma, which will take the solution of the problem under its control.

Separately, Svishchev spoke on the important topic of introducing duties.

On the one hand, in his opinion, this norm will lead to an increase in the cost of foreign goods necessary for athletes, on the other hand, it is necessary to protect the interests of the Russian manufacturer.

“Rather, they talked about the cheap segment, which does not allow the development of our mass sports equipment industry.

This niche is now occupied by inexpensive products from China.

Meanwhile, Russian manufacturers could compete with them.

Therefore, they ask the state for protection.

We heard them.

Otherwise, it turns out that we cannot impose duties within the WTO, while other countries for some reason are protected from our goods,” the deputy added.