In the 2022 season, due to the prevailing weather conditions - cold and rather late spring, all crops were delayed in their development, potato planting shifted one to two weeks later than usual, while it is rather difficult to predict the expected harvest, since it will also depend on weather conditions. conditions that will develop throughout the growing season. But even now it can be said that the forecasts are optimistic due to the increase in sown areas, for example, only industrial potatoes were to grow by 30 hectares. The area under personal subsidiary plots should also increase, and the main driver of this trend should be the support measures taken by the Ministry of Agriculture and the government of the Russian Federation. Also, the growth in areas is due to the growing need for potatoes for processing: in this regard, the Ministry of Agriculture is developing programs for potato growers that would stimulate an increase in the area under this crop. The gross potato harvest, according to preliminary forecasts, in the 2022 season should be 6,8 million tons.
Not everything went smoothly with the seed material, there were certain difficulties with the supply of imported seeds, however, the regulatory authorities did their best to simplify the import procedure by canceling some pre-shipment checks. At the moment, there remains a rather high dependence on foreign selection of potato seeds - at the level of 65%. However, it is worth noting the trend towards a decrease in the volume of purchases of foreign seeds, which is associated with the growing localization of their production in Russia. Domestic seed production is gradually developing: starting from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture will more intensively stimulate investment activity for the creation of selection and seed production centers: the share of reimbursement of capital costs for their construction and modernization will be increased from 20% to 50%. In 2022, the government will allocate 1,2 billion rubles. for the development of breeding centers in Russia.
In connection with the February events, logistics became more complicated, the cost of transportation by land increased significantly, and transportation by sea became completely impossible. This situation was also reflected in the technology: the supply of units and their components began to be blocked, the deadlines were postponed. Against the backdrop of the political situation and the pandemic that preceded it, with plant downtime and an increase in production costs, prices for plant protection products, fertilizers, fuels and lubricants, and packaging materials increased by almost a third, which should undoubtedly affect the cost of potatoes this season.
Many potato producers are now faced with the lack of certain positions of plant protection products from distributors, which is associated with delays and disruptions in deliveries, temporary production shutdowns, some producers were forced to abandon the active ingredients of a number of foreign companies in favor of other active ingredients produced by Russian companies. Problems with such active substances as diquat and glyphosate are acutely felt. All this may lead to a decrease in the leadership positions of foreign companies in the market, for example, some of them have already decided to suspend business in Russia, against the backdrop of these events, Russian companies are increasing their sales volumes.
Anastasia Ukolova, ADAMA Specialty Crops Manager