This year, a record harvest of greenhouse vegetables is expected in Russia — over 1.5 million tons, writes Agribusiness. This was announced during the IV agricultural forum “Fruits and vegetables of Russia — 2022” by the vice-president of the association “Greenhouses of Russia” Andrey Medvedev. The interlocutor of Agroinvestor in the industry clarifies that the harvest will be 5% more than a year earlier. According to the Ministry of Agriculture at the end of October, the production of protected soil vegetables in Russia reached 1.25 million tons, which is 6.8% more than the same indicator for 2021. In particular, the collection of greenhouse cucumbers increased by 7.7% to 725.4 thousand. tons, tomatoes — by 7.4% to 502.9 thousand tons.
The increase in the gross harvest of vegetables of the closed ground has been decreasing in the last few years. This, according to the interlocutor of Agroinvestor, is due to the fact that the base itself is increasing, from which growth is calculated. “The increase will continue in 2022-2024. This is due to the fact that the greenhouse business is quite inert: first, greenhouses are built for a long time, then they reach their design capacity for about a year,” he says, adding that, for example, equipment that was delivered and installed last year will reach its design capacity only in a year or two.
Therefore, in the next couple of years there will be an increase in gross collection, and then everything will depend on the countries supplying the equipment. “But if there are no relations with Europe, and now Dutch equipment is mainly used, then it is possible to build relations with eastern countries if the market has such a need. And it is there, especially for tomatoes,” says the source of Agroinvestor in the market.
Natalia Davydenko, head of the Interagro Plant and Mushroom Growing department, said during the forum that 70% of the sweet pepper consumed by Russians is imported. The main suppliers are Israel, Turkey and China. In her opinion, it is realistic to replace these volumes, but the growth of own production is constrained by agrotechnical (high labor costs, conditionally low yields, lack of intensive agricultural technology, etc.) and socio-economic factors (lack of a culture of constant consumption and high price).
Positive factors for development are the change of gastronomic preferences, the shift of investor interest due to the saturation of the market with cucumbers and tomatoes towards niche crops, as well as the expansion of interregional exports from large greenhouse complexes to the farthest corners of the country, Davydenko believes. According to her, investments in the production of both traditional and niche vegetables are about the same, but with a tomato yield of 50 kg / m2, the average price for it should be at least 60 rubles / kg, in the case of pepper — at least 125 rubles / kg, and to keep such a cost in the spring -the summer season is almost impossible because of the cheap seasonal vegetables.
According to Davydenko, given the saturation of the market with tomatoes and cucumbers, it is advisable to invest money and allocate a sector in the existing production for the cultivation of niche crops. However, as the interlocutor of Agroinvestor notes, cucumber and tomato are profitable to produce due to their yields of 120 kg/m2 and 60 kg/m2 per year, respectively, while the yield of eggplant is 25 kg/m2. “That is, in order to produce it profitably, the price of eggplant in the wholesale should be twice as high as for tomatoes and four times the price of cucumbers,” the interlocutor of Agroinvestor calculates. — Only when such prices are reached, greenhouses can begin to be converted to eggplant production. It’s pure business and simple math.”
Wholesale prices for greenhouse products are now quite low. So, last week cucumbers cost 1.5-2 times lower than a year ago, the interlocutor of Agroinvestor continues. According to him, in the eight months of 2022, cucumber prices increased by 14% compared to 2019, which is below the inflation rate. Tamara Reshetnikova, CEO of the Growth Technologies company, previously said that in the first seven months of this year, the sales prices of cucumber increased by 7%, tomato — by 15%. According to Rosstat, as of October 26, prices for cucumbers and tomatoes have decreased by 39.97% and 28.16%, respectively, since the beginning of the year, although they increased by 10.84% and 21.62% relative to September.
A source: https://www.agroinvestor.ru/
