On June 23, 2022, with the support of the Association “Greenhouses of Russia”, the III Agricultural Forum “Greenhouse Industry – 2022” is held in Moscow, annually gathering key players in the protected ground sector of Russia: representatives of large greenhouse complexes and retail chains; manufacturers of equipment, fertilizers, seeds and other components; representatives of associations and specialized public services.
The Forum is organized by the Federal Journal of Agribusiness. The official website of the event is https://greenhouseforum.ru/. Sponsors of the event are SPC Pharmbiomed LLC and AGRISOVGAZ LLC.
The first session of the forum was devoted to discussing the current state of the greenhouse industry in Russia and further prospects for its development. Valery Kochergin, director of the Agribusiness Journal, voiced a welcome address to the forum participants from Andrey Razin, Deputy Minister of Agriculture of Russia. In his letter, he noted the importance of the event as an effective platform for a constructive dialogue and promotion of the implementation of demanded initiatives in the greenhouse industry. Of particular importance for the further development of the segment is the implementation of new high-tech investment projects and the modernization of the greenhouse industry.
“Russian greenhouse vegetable growing: the state of the industry, development prospects, state support in the current conditions” is the topic of the first report of the forum, which was delivered by Arkady Muravyov, Vice President of the Association “Greenhouses of Russia”. He noted that Russia continues the stage of active construction of greenhouse complexes, which began in 2013, since then more than 1,500 hectares have been built and vegetable production has quadrupled to 1.6 million tons. Large greenhouse holdings plan to put into operation significant areas by the end of 2022: Eco-Culture Agro-Industrial Holding – more than 200 hectares, GK Rost – more than 70 hectares. A number of large complexes with an area of more than 80 hectares are at the design stage. However, the current situation in the economy has a negative impact. Thus, the construction of the Ryazanskiye Rosy shopping center with an area of 6.4 hectares was suspended. Arkady Muravyov noted modern trends, areas of activity that today are starting to bring additional profit to greenhouse complexes. This is the opening of large garden centers where flowers and vegetables are grown and immediately sold, as well as participation in the state reforestation program through the cultivation of coniferous tree planting material in greenhouses. The speaker also noted the successful import substitution by Russian companies of the equipment necessary for industrial greenhouses. In the field of energy supply, domestic manufacturers, for example, are able to supply many efficient solutions, such as automatic modular thermal power plants or three-pass hot-water fire-tube boilers.
The topic of greenhouse vegetable production in Russia was continued by Dmitry Aveltsov, director of the Center for Agroanalytics. According to FAOSTAT, Russia ranks second in the world in cucumber consumption (1.7 million tons) and eighth in tomato consumption (3.5 million tons), while being only in the third and second ten lists in per capita consumption. At the same time, our country’s own production is not enough; last year, Russia imported 460.22 and 55.2 thousand tons of cucumbers. However, the sanctions imposed against Russia have led to the impossibility of updating/expanding some technical capacities and the risk of a ban on the import of seeds, equipment and other components. The speaker showed the statistics of the domestic market of vegetables, imports and exports of certain categories of protected ground products, dwelling in more detail on the mutual trade in agricultural products with countries such as Iran, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan. The price situation in the vegetable market in Russia was considered. Separately, the problem of emerging risks for vegetable processors in connection with sanctions pressure and the withdrawal of large processing companies from the market was noted.
According to the Center for Agroanalytics, there are 72 investment projects in Russia for the period 2021/2028. in the production of greenhouse vegetables. 62% of projects are already being implemented, the rest are planned for implementation. Planned total funding of investment projects for 2022-2024 is 45.2 billion rubles, including 1.7 billion rubles. will be directed to the modernization of existing plants.
Further, forecasts of changes in the balance of supply and demand in the greenhouse market in 2022-23. Tamara Reshetnikova, General Director of the research company Growth Technologies, shared with the forum participants. She examined the structure of spending by the Russian population on fresh vegetables in the spring of 2022 and the structure of consumption of greenhouse products. Since 2013, there has been a clear upward trend in domestic production of vegetables in the open and protected ground, with a simultaneous decrease in imports. According to the expert, the total area of operated winter greenhouses in Russia in 2021 was 3298 hectares, spring greenhouses – 1017 hectares.
