Potato harvesting in Russia is still ongoing, but at the moment it is already possible to sum up the preliminary results.
September 27 magazine "Potato system" on the initiative Potato Union asked his readers (subscribers mobile applications and members of specialized chats on Telegram) to assess the volume and quality of grown products, as well as to compare the pace of harvesting in the current and last seasons.
76 people from various regions of the country answered the questions of the publication.
First of all, we note that almost half (42,1%) of those surveyed believe that the harvest volumes on their farms this season are higher than last. True, a noticeable increase (answer option - 5) is recorded by only 13,2% of the survey participants. An excellent harvest was obtained in the Astrakhan, Ryazan, Kaluga, Nizhny Novgorod, Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Pskov regions, as well as in the Stavropol and Krasnoyarsk regions.
Over a third (34,2%) of respondents believe that they will harvest the same amount of potatoes this year as they did last season.
Less optimistic forecasts - 21,1% of participants. Moreover, 5,3% of potato growers assess the harvest volumes as very low (answer option - 1), respondents from the Yaroslavl region (three participants at once!) and the Udmurt Republic reported a strong shortfall.
The second question concerned the quality of the products. Only 13,2% of survey participants confirmed that the potatoes grown by their enterprises in the current season fully comply with the network requirements (answer option - 5). 35,5% of respondents rated the compliance of their products with the criteria of retailers at 4. The same number of respondents are convinced that the quality of their potatoes is at an average level (answer option - 3). 2% gave a “10,5” rating to the quality of their products (among those dissatisfied with the result obtained - agricultural producers from the Volgograd, Ryazan, Novosibirsk regions), 5,3% put a “one” (again, representatives of the Yaroslavl region and the Udmurt Republic).
The third part of the survey was devoted to the pace of cleaning. Almost half of the respondents (44,7%) indicated a delay from last year's deadlines, with 17,1% of respondents reporting a sharp delay (answer option - 1). Serious delays are noted in the Bryansk, Astrakhan, Vologda, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Sverdlovsk regions.
28,9% of respondents are cleaning their farms within the established deadlines. And 26,3% of respondents note that they are working ahead of last year's schedule. A noticeable acceleration of work is recorded at the enterprises of 7,9% of respondents. The leaders in terms of harvesting are farms from the Moscow, Novgorod, Penza regions, Krasnoyarsk and Altai regions.
The editorial staff of the Potato System magazine thanks all the participants in the survey and hopes that the information received was useful to the entire audience of readers.