According to the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, about 2022 million tons of potatoes were harvested in the organized sector in 7,23. Based on the forecasts of the regional bodies of the agro-industrial complex, it was planned to receive 152 thousand tons less tubers. There is an overfulfillment of the plan, however, under the current conditions, this only aggravated the situation of potato growers.
From hope to despair
High prices for the 2021 harvest and good profits at the end of it pushed Russian potato growers to decide to increase the area under crops by 30 hectares. And the new season promised to be a real record for them.
– The plan for the production of potatoes in 2022 was fulfilled by 102 percent, – notes the executive director of the Union of Potato and Vegetable Market Participants (Potato Union) Alexey Krasilnikov. - If we take into account the average yield over the past few years (24-25 tons per hectare), the gross harvest could reach 7,4 million tons. But due to many objective factors, agricultural producers finished the season with serious losses.
“The past year turned out to be difficult for potato and vegetable growers,” confirms the head of the Sverdlovsk peasant farm Andrey Aimetov. – We bought fertilizers in advance, froze money for future needs, updated potato reproduction. They did everything correctly, competently, invested a lot of money in the hope that the season will turn out perfectly. But in the end, they just threw money away.
Although at the level of the whole of Russia it was possible to dig up potatoes on an area of 282,6 thousand hectares, or 94 percent of the planted, the losses are significant. In a number of regions, including Tula, Lipetsk, Tambov, Belgorod, Orenburg, Ryazan, Kirov regions, Trans-Baikal and Primorsky territories, the republics of Mari El, Mordovia, Chuvashia, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Khakassia and Komi, there are from 11 to 48 percent of the harvest.
But even greater disappointment awaited the farmers when they started selling their products. Oversaturation of the market, fierce competition, low prices, lack of demand - all this deprived producers of the opportunity to close the season with the expected profit.
No bad weather?
A natural blow to potato growing could not be predicted or prevented.
A long cold spring and a summer drought brought many problems to potato growers, as a result of which the yield significantly decreased and the quality of tubers suffered.
“After the dry summer of 2021, July and August 2022 turned out to be just as miserly in terms of precipitation,” admits Aleksey Mikheev, Deputy General Director for Crop Production at the Krasny Mayak Yaroslavl farm. – Therefore, our enterprise did not reach the level of productivity, the potatoes did not have enough moisture. And because of the slow vegetation, the tubers failed to form a sufficiently strong peel. In spring, on the contrary, high humidity was recorded. There were many large lumps left in the soil, which caused injury to the potatoes during harvesting.
- At the beginning of summer, we still had precipitation, - Alexander Alekseev, head of the Novgorod peasant farm, shares his experience, - but from the end of July to September it didn’t rain at all. The equipment on my farm is not the most modern, some machines are still from Soviet times, and it is not possible to plant tubers deeply. The combination of these two factors led to the fact that potatoes suffered from soil drought and were born small.
“Thanks to rainy June, up to 25-30 tubers per bush have formed in our fields,” Andrey Aimetov explains. – But during the period of their active growth, when the heat was 30-40 degrees, not a drop of rain fell. So we got a lot of potatoes with a diameter of 40 to 50 mm. During harvesting, the tubers received mechanical damage, because by this time the soil remained hard as a stone.
“Our farm has been dealing with potatoes for a long time,” says the agronomist of the Tver KFH Saratov A.V. Evgeny Saratov. – But there has never been such a cleaning as in 2022 in our memory. In addition to the fact that the earth turned out to be overdried to the limit, a large number of lumps formed, which, together with the tubers, entered the storage. But there is an explanation for this. We planted potatoes in a dry and cold spring, before the soil had time to mature.
The cleaning of the 2022 season could be devoted to a separate publication.
“Due to weather conditions, the state of emergency was introduced in 16 regions of the country,” says Alexey Krasilnikov. - Among them were recognized leaders in the production of potatoes. So, due to waterlogging of the soil in the midst of harvesting, an emergency situation has developed in the Tula, Belgorod, Oryol, Lipetsk, Ryazan, Penza, Voronezh, Tambov, Kursk and Bryansk regions.
In September and October, many farmers simply could not enter the field, as the rains did not stop for weeks. The pace of work was greatly reduced, time was lost, and as a result, the fields that had not been harvested before the frosts went under the snow.
Every cloud has a silver lining
The political situation in the world has caused a rise in the price of many goods and services, which has affected the cost of agricultural work. In addition, serious failures occurred in the work of well-established logistics schemes.
Western operators refused to deliver goods in the direction of Russia, there were problems with the charter of ships and rail transport. Many had to redirect logistics to vehicles, but its shortage did not allow them to meet the deadlines.
“Delays in the supply of equipment and spare parts required the intervention of the federal authorities,” says Alexey Krasilnikov. “After that, domestic dealers made every effort to provide farmers with spare parts and prevent downtime in their work. And when the cost of mineral fertilizers increased by almost 50 percent, with the help of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Agriculture, the price increase was stopped.
Despite all the difficulties, during the past season, farmers managed to purchase large volumes of agricultural machinery, domestic and foreign. It is not yet possible to fully satisfy the demand, and for a number of positions, for example, for harvesters for harvesting vegetables and potatoes, a queue has lined up for two or three years in advance.
“In the summer, when the ruble strengthened, we made an advance payment for new equipment, started building a hangar for storing crops,” notes Eugene Saratov. – This was also facilitated by the high price of our products last year, which made it possible to make a good profit. True, in December, when the national currency lost ground, the cost of cars rose sharply. For example, a potato harvester went up in price by 4 million rubles at once.
Looking for markets
During the harvesting campaign in 2022, a large amount of small-fraction potatoes was harvested. And this made it even more difficult for producers to sell the crop.
“The time has come to make decisions to reduce the requirements of retail chains,” believes Alexey Krasilnikov. - A medium-sized potato is not inferior in quality to a larger one, it has the same useful and gustatory properties. Therefore, there will definitely be consumer demand for such products. The Potato Union plans to hold negotiations with Russian retailers on this topic in the near future.
“According to my observations, today in the networks there are potatoes that do not meet their own requirements either in terms of caliber or quality,” he is surprised. Evgeny Saratov. - But our chain store refused to take tubers even with small cracks. The situation worsened by mid-autumn, when we sold nothing at all for a week. But then a client appeared who takes potatoes for washing with subsequent sale, and we quickly reached good volumes.
“In previous years, we shipped potatoes by trucks, and customers stood in line,” recalls Andrey Aimetov. – But last autumn I had to compete with colleagues from the Kemerovo and Omsk regions, from where they brought larger tubers at 7-8 rubles per kilogram. With the start of deliveries of our products to Uzbekistan, it seemed that the sales market had finally been found. But at the same time, potatoes were brought there from the Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk regions, as a result, the price fell, sales stopped. But we do not give up and continue to actively search for customers to whom we offer sorted and packaged tubers of five plus caliber.
“At our enterprise, potatoes are divided into fractions and sorted by quality before being sold,” says Alexey Mikheev.- The larger one goes to retail chains, medium-sized tubers go to small dealers, entrepreneurs, and are also sold through their own stores. There is a clear plan, and in accordance with it, we must have time to sell the entire harvest before the end of spring.
Having not seen a price increase, many producers have suspended the sale of potatoes, and since the beginning of the new year they have been closely monitoring the situation on the market.
– In 2021, I made good money, – explains Alexander Alekseev, - so I decided to change the production technology, purchase equipment, buy seeds of elite quality. To bring their plans to life, I had to use borrowed funds. And I sold the potatoes of the new crop until I paid off my debts. Since then, I have been waiting for the growth in the cost of production, because to sell it now means to work to zero. I think there will definitely not be such a price for tubers as a year ago. But I hope that by spring it will rise to at least 18-20 rubles per kilogram.
However, not everyone will be able to wait for attractive prices without losses. Farmers harvesting in high humidity conditions faced another problem. Excess moisture negatively affected the keeping quality of potatoes sent for storage in large volumes.
Towards efficient production
Farmers from different regions agree that in the new season it is necessary to reduce the area under crops. The past year has clearly demonstrated the consequences of overproduction.
“The construction of a number of processing enterprises was put on hold due to the departure of foreign investors from our country,” recalls Alexey Krasilnikov. – And yet we expect that the volume of processing by 2024 will be at least 2 million tons of tubers annually. Factories for the production of French fries and starch will soon appear in several Russian regions, for example, in the Kaliningrad, Lipetsk, Tula and Moscow regions. Due to the implementation of such projects, it will be possible to remove excess commercial mass on the market, which will help maintain the profitability of agricultural producers at a decent level.
“Last year we planted 30 hectares of potato chips,” says Alexey Mikheev. - The resulting crop, more than 700 tons, was immediately sold at an affordable price, and all the tubers, starting from 35 mm, left. We were satisfied with the result and, most likely, we will continue to develop this direction. The Russian market is not yet saturated with potatoes for processing. Demand for it remains consistently high, which must be used.
“The share of potatoes for chips in our fields has reached 30 percent, but we would like to increase it to 50,” shares his plans Evgeny Saratov. – For the second year, we have been supplying products to a large Western company operating in Russia. Prices for potato chips are much more profitable than food ones, and I see great prospects for increasing its production. If we talk about the economy as a whole, work continues to improve efficiency at all stages of its activity.
“We are striving for development, investing in production, creating new jobs, improving the infrastructure of our district,” emphasizes Andrey Aimetov.- Last season, the construction of a storage facility for three thousand tons began, where all available funds were directed. We have our own sorting line, but we also need to create facilities for primary processing and packaging, which will require significant financial investments. Our goal is to enter retail chains with our products and conclude long-term contracts with them. To do this, a cooperative is being created that will unite several enterprises and allow the sale of potatoes in an organized and systematic way.
At the end of November 2022, Rosstat published data on the agricultural census conducted a year earlier. Its results showed that, in comparison with 2016, the area under potatoes in personal subsidiary plots decreased from one million to five hundred thousand hectares.
– The refusal of the population to grow crops opens up good prospects for the commodity sector, – I am sure Alexey Krasilnikov.– And if this trend continues, farmers will reasonably be able to increase production volumes without fear of market oversaturation and low demand for products.
The collapse in potato prices at the end of the 2022 season came as a complete surprise to many. The situation may repeat itself this season, so the adoption of new state support measures is very useful.
On January 1, 2023, the federal project "Development of vegetable and potato growing" came into effect. It provides for a 2030 percent increase in tuber production in the organized sector by 20. It is possible that support in the ruble will be felt already at the end of the next season, and farmers will have more reasons to talk about victories and achievements.
Irina Berg