Large production negatively affects prices and profitability of farmers
THE AVERAGE YIELD OF POTATO GROWN ALMOST BY 20 CENTERS FROM A HECTAR
Photo: Pixabay
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, as of November 25, agricultural organizations and peasant farms dug up 7,3 million tons of potatoes against 6,7 million tons in the same period last year. The average yield was 256,6 c / ha, while a year ago it was at the level of 237,8 c / ha. Farmers have to clean about 6% of the area. The gross harvest is guaranteed to exceed the figure of 2018, when, according to Rosstat, about 7,1 million tons were produced in the commodity sector.
Basically, this year the potatoes are of good quality, the weather in most producing regions allowed us to finish harvesting on time, said “Agroinvestment»Executive Director of the Potato Union Alexey Krasilnikov. However, according to him, there were still certain difficulties in the growing season, planting and harvesting works. In particular, the regions of the Far East - Primorsky and Khabarovsk Territories, the Jewish Autonomous Region - faced extreme weather situations. There were also difficulties in the Novgorod and Vologda regions. All of the districts mentioned have harvested less potatoes than expected based on targets, he said.
The Bryansk Region, the main Russian potato producer, also faced problems related to weather conditions and pests. As a result, this year about 825 thousand tons of potatoes were dug up there, which is 50 thousand tons less than in 2018. At the same time, due to the drought in Ukraine and the unprecedented price against this background, part of the potatoes both from the Bryansk region and from other regions are exported there, says Krasilnikov. The top 5 largest potato producers, along with the Bryansk region, included the Tula (589 thousand tons), Nizhny Novgorod (about 480 thousand tons), Moscow (427 thousand tons) and Astrakhan regions (309 thousand tons), follows from the data “ Center of Agroanalytics ".
However, such a high harvest has a negative effect on prices - depending on the quality of potatoes, they are either at the level of the previous year, or 10% lower and vary from 7 rubles / kg to 10 rubles / kg, Krasilnikov draws attention. At such prices, the producers' profitability is minimal, he draws attention, so they need to invest in additional processing and packaging of potatoes in order to be able to sell them at a higher price. Hand-worked potatoes, he said, cost two to three times as much.
However, the main players in the potato market are still small businesses that do not have storage capacities, and they dump, selling their products at low prices. “In this situation, large agricultural enterprises have taken a wait-and-see attitude and are holding back potatoes until the products of the small-scale commodity sector leave the market,” Krasilnikov comments.
It is also possible to relieve the pressure on the potato surplus market by increasing the processing volumes. Now, according to Krasilnikov's estimates, about 1,5 million tons per year are processed. In particular, thanks to the development of this sector, imported products are being replaced - in particular, french fries. In recent years, Russia has imported 100-110 thousand tons of these products from the Netherlands and Poland, now this volume is produced by the Belaya Dachi plant in the Lipetsk region, and the company plans to build the second stage of the enterprise, Krasilnikov knows. “The White Dacha project has already received recognition both in the countries of the former CIS and in some European countries,” the expert explains. The potato processing plant of the company “Agriko”With a design capacity of up to 50 thousand tons of finished products, he adds.
Source: https://www.agroinvestor.ru/