Makhachkala, April 1, 2018. Dagestan plant breeding enterprises intend to increase the harvest of grapes by 6.6% - up to 180 thousand tons in 2018, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Republic reports. In 2017, the agrarians of Dagestan harvested 168.8 thousand tons of grapes, one third of which was sent for processing.

"This year, the republican budget allocates 580 million rubles for the development of the viticulture industry. Of these, 100 million rubles are allocated for subsidizing grapes processing enterprises and 480 million rubles for subsidizing the field works" - the ministry official said.

According to the Ministry, in 2018 Dagestan plans to plant 1.5 thousand hectares of new vineyards, of which 530 hectares - within the framework of the spring planting campaign. Currently, the area of vineyards in Dagestan totals up to 25 thousand hectares, of which 18 thousand ha are the productive ones.