Experts assessed the potential of import substitution in greenhouse vegetables
The main factor in the growth of consumption and import substitution in vegetables is the development of the greenhouse business, the press service of the Russian Agricultural Bank said. The total potential for import substitution in greenhouse vegetables is about 600 thousand tons.
Today, a significant part of the greenhouses that are serviced by the bank have their own mini-power plants, most of them are equipped with a powerful system of supplementary illumination of plants, which allows for record harvests, said Dmitry Bronnikov, deputy director of the largest business department of Rosselkhozbank.
Near future of the industry
The structure of greenhouse vegetable production is dominated by tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuces and greens, which account for more than 95% of production. The total potential for import substitution of greenhouse vegetables is about 0.6 million tons.
Another promising area of indoor cultivation is floriculture. Given the government’s new initiatives on concessional lending to flower greenhouses, this area may attract new investors, the bank predicts.
“The industry has entered the stage of maturity, the rate of commissioning of new capacities will decrease due to market saturation and import substitution. In terms of crops until 2025, Rosselkhozbank sees an opportunity to build greenhouses for growing tomatoes in all regions of the country, and high-yielding cucumbers only in Eastern Siberia and the Far East. At the same time, we see significant potential in the following segments: these are salads, herbs, peppers, eggplants, garden strawberries,” said Bronnikov.
The total potential of new projects, according to him, is estimated at 800 hectares with an emphasis on undeveloped segments. However, the construction of greenhouses in these segments will require new competencies from investors, the expert noted.
Over the past five years, according to the Russian Agricultural Bank, about 1.5 thousand hectares of greenhouse complexes have been commissioned and modernized in the country. Last year, their total area increased by 10% to 3.3 thousand hectares. In general, there are more than 400 farms in the country now.
The construction of modern, efficient greenhouses, according to experts from the financial organization, will help realize the potential of import substitution in vegetable growing, increase the consumption of healthy and fresh products and vegetables in general per capita. Now it is 107-108 kilograms per capita and is ahead of Canada, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, Sweden, Finland and a number of other countries. The world record for vegetable consumption per person is China (377 kilograms per year).
By 2030, under favorable conditions, the consumption of vegetables in Russia may increase to 115 kilograms per year, the bank added.
Successful cases
The financial organization gave examples of successful examples of the development of greenhouse complexes with which the bank cooperates. Thus, in 2013, the ECO-culture group of companies owned only one small film greenhouse with an area of 9 hectares. Now it has over 530 hectares of operating and under construction greenhouses throughout Russia and its own plant for the production of greenhouse structures and equipment.
The ROST Group of Companies built a holding from scratch in 2013, which today includes 500 hectares of modern greenhouses in various regions of the country.
Another successful example, according to the bank, is the Agro-Invest group of companies, which has an innovative greenhouse complex with an area of 107 hectares in the Kaluga region. It uses LED lighting systems for plants, which reduces energy costs. This is the world’s largest greenhouse complex in terms of the use of LED technology.
Another unique project is the Donskaya Usadba greenhouses with an area of 22 hectares in the Rostov region, where electricity is produced on the basis of gas from its own field.
The new greenhouse complex of the YugAgroHolding group of companies is now operating in the suburbs of Grozny, another 5 hectares are planned to be launched in 2022.
The press service said that in general, Rosselkhozbank allocated about 205 billion rubles to greenhouse vegetable growing in projects in 54 regions.
