The seed potato market in our country is on the verge of changes. Russian varieties and Russian-produced seeds are coming to the fore. But much more needs to be done to improve the status of the Russian breeder. We are talking about all this with one of the most authoritative experts in the field of potato selection and seed production, the head of the selection and seed production company Molyanov Agro Group, Vladimir Molyanov.
– Vladimir Dmitrievich, let’s start with an assessment of nearby prospects. The current season can hardly be considered profitable for farms that specialize in growing commercial potatoes. Seed growers report a sharp drop in demand for their products. Will the quality of planting material in the new season be lower than usual?
– Seed material of top varieties (for example, Colomba, Arizona, Riviera, etc.), which provide high yields (especially early ones) and guarantee a premium appearance of the products, ran out on the market before the end of November last year. That is, potato growers, who today sell a high-quality table product for 15 rubles/kg against the background of the average cost of potatoes of 8-9 rubles/kg, have already updated the seeds for the new season.
Also, there are practically no free volumes of varieties’ seeds on the market for processing. This season, many would like to increase the volume of production of raw materials for processing enterprises, but such seeds are not produced “for storage”; all batches have long been contracted.
But there really is a problem with the falling demand for seeds, as always in economically difficult years, it concerns a group of popular varieties that are highly resistant to disease. Potato growers are abandoning previously planned seed renewal in the hope that the variety will survive another year.
– At the end of January, Russia introduced a quota for the import of seed potatoes produced abroad. The step was expected, the volume of the quota is quite large, and yet it is a restrictive measure. Will the market feel it?
– This measure is another reminder that the time has come to more actively develop potato seed production in Russia.
Our country imports a significant amount of seed potatoes from abroad; in some years it reached 30 thousand tons, but objectively, the industry’s needs are significantly lower.
We need to clearly understand why we purchase seed material abroad?
The motivation of a company that imports varieties that have no analogues on the Russian market and that have some fundamentally important parameters, for example, for processors, is understandable.
But there is another category of buyers who believe that seeds produced in Europe are, by definition, of higher quality than Russian ones. This myth is costly for the economics of the farm. Prices for foreign seeds are always higher than for Russian ones, and this year, given the poor harvest abroad, the difference is especially noticeable (minimum level: 1-1,5 euros per kilogram (with delivery), which is from 120 to 150 rubles. /kg).
I would venture to suggest that it is the growing level of costs that will soon force farmers to abandon orders from the elite abroad. And this will be a reasonable decision, note: German farmers do not buy seeds from Scotland, and the British do not import potatoes from the Netherlands, because it is not economically feasible.
– Today in Russia the “green light” is given not only to seeds of domestic production, but also to domestic varieties. In your opinion, can the country be left without access to the achievements of foreign selection? And should we be afraid of this?
– I am sure that no matter how the situation develops, the food security of our country is not in danger. Russia will always be provided with potatoes.
In theory, owners of patented European varieties could prohibit their use, but a significant number of free varieties remain on the market. Yes, they are 30 years old or more, but they remain modern and in demand. In general, the concept of “old variety” should not be perceived in a negative way. In Europe, thousands of farmers grow Bintje, which was created in 1910. Or let's remember the very commercially successful Spunta variety, which dates back to the 60s. In the Netherlands, more than 50% of the potato area is occupied by so-called old varieties.
Russia has a decent portfolio of its own varieties, plus we can also turn to history. If we carefully study the characteristics of selection achievements that have been included in the State Register over the past 30-40 years, we will find at least 20-30 options that meet market requirements. They were simply not appreciated at one time because they appeared too early for their time. In the 90s, for example, no one was interested in non-starchy potatoes, and everyone believed that potatoes must be tasty. And today producers are mainly concerned with yield indicators and presentation. In general, I don’t see a problem in starting to use our old varieties on an equal basis with modern ones. It’s just that for each of them you need to work out the growing technology.
You can consider proposals from breeders of the foreign non-European market - starting from China and ending with Middle Eastern countries. Of course, they have their own specifics - in China, for example, there is no need for varieties for mechanical harvesting, because they have enough labor; They grow very large potatoes that are not suitable for bagging, but can be individually packaged, and this makes it difficult for us to enter their markets, but they can come to us.
There are many opportunities to maintain potato production volumes in Russia. You can simply follow the path of increasing space. There are reserves: in the 2000s in the Samara region, potatoes in the organized sector occupied 15 thousand hectares, but now only 4 thousand hectares.
– The Molyanov Agro Group company carries out not only seed production, but also selection work. How did you come to this direction? How do you determine the market need for certain varieties?
– We spent quite a long time, more than 10 years, working on breeding work, selecting varieties and strains, and trying to grow them in different regions. The launch of the federal subprogram “Development of selection and seed production of potatoes in the Russian Federation” gave a certain acceleration to the start of our breeding project; state support was of great importance, although there is a feeling that we would have taken on this direction without it.
Talking about the needs of the market and the tasks of the breeder is both simple and difficult at the same time. There are no ideal varieties in the world; none of the available ones is the embodiment of all the expectations of potato growers. For example, a red tuber variety appears with excellent skin, it is suitable for washing, but is poorly stored or is not resistant to viruses. Or a new super-early variety has come out with amazing yields, but it quickly degenerates. Potato growers are constantly in search of better solutions, and their requests indicate specific niches in the market.
The breeder can choose any one. But none of them will say what they are working on and what they want to achieve, because this is the company’s know-how. And besides, no one knows whether his choice will be relevant after 8-10 years, which will be required to create a new variety.
For example, in the fall of 2024 we are preparing to enter the market with the Julia variety. It belongs to the very early ripening group, with good skin, suitable for mechanical harvesting. I hope that it will be of interest to potato growers, but this cannot be guaranteed.
The second variety of our selection – Alva – will undergo the second year of state testing. This is a variety for processing into chips; we have already carried out test frying at processing plants and are very pleased with the result. In addition, it gives excellent yields even when grown in the southern regions, under dry farming conditions.
I will also say that both varieties are highly resistant to virus Y, which corresponds to global trends: as you know, in the West they are trying to reduce the use of chemical means of protection, which means that varieties that are highly susceptible will not withstand competition in the future.
– At industry events, they are increasingly talking about accelerated selection methods. Don't you use them?
“I hope that someday the company will develop and we will be able to afford them.” But you need to understand that these methods will not give you the opportunity to create varieties “once or twice”.
Not a single major global breeding company has to date declared that it is capable of offering the market not one or two varieties per year (as was the case before), but five or six. New technologies are being introduced, but a revolution in the field of breeding has not yet occurred, and this means that at this stage they make it possible to increase the efficiency of the breeder’s work, reduce routine operations, but nothing more. Although this result is, of course, very significant.
– You communicate with potato breeders from different countries. Over the past year we have been to China and India. Is it interesting in terms of exchanging ideas? Can we say that the areas of research overlap?
– After the trips, I concluded that scientists from other countries are very interested in everything that is being done in Russia in terms of selection. Especially if our research concerns some key issues for a particular state. For example, the topic of creating varieties with high or extremely high dry matter content turned out to be very relevant for China. The increased attention to it is understandable: densely populated countries are constantly looking for new solutions to provide the population with high-calorie nutrition, and dry matter consists of carbohydrates, proteins, and vitamins. And money.
In all countries where there is low inflation, business profitability is on average 5-10%. When a company switches to producing potatoes with a dry matter content of 25% (instead of 15-17%), this difference of a few percent immediately affects the level of profit.
– We have already said that the process of creating a variety takes a lot of time and does not guarantee results. In this case, can breeding activities be considered as a business?
- I am ready to repeat that it takes about 10 years to create a variety. But there is an important clarification: as a rule, scientists already in the second or third year of work see whether their undertakings will be of any use. Another thing is that the future variety is still awaiting testing for resistance to potato cancer (unresistant varieties simply will not be included in the State Register, even if they have exceptional characteristics), golden nematode; stages of state testing. After the variety is included in the State Register (as a rule, this is 6-9 years of work), the breeder can begin preparing for the release of the new product on the market. So it turns out that the path from the idea to the stage of obtaining the first commercial batch of seeds with a volume of 100 tons takes at least 10-12 years.
But the problem is not only that the breeding company must annually “bury” about a million rubles in the ground for a decade before it begins to receive a return.
In my opinion, breeding will become a business in Russia only when we develop a concept of the value of a variety as a brand. Today no one is willing to pay for a name. Only seed material with certain characteristics can bring profit, that is, the breeding company also needs to engage in seed production.
– What volume of seeds should a breeding and seed production company sell in order to feel confident in the market?
– In Europe, it is generally accepted that seed companies that sell less than 10 thousand tons of seeds (this is approximately 300 hectares of propagation) are considered small, and therefore unstable.
In Russia, there is a rare seed company that sells over 10 thousand tons of seeds per season, including respected Western representative offices. In order to sell more, we need a seed market, and right now there is none.
Potatoes in our country are grown on an area of 300 thousand hectares (excluding private farms of citizens). The actual annual demand for seeds is about 900 thousand - 1 million tons. At the same time, the share of seeds certified by the Russian Agricultural Center does not exceed 20% of this amount. This is the volume of our seed market, the pie that we share with other seed growers. If it were at least twice as large, the country would have a more comfortable environment for the development of breeding. The market would regulate itself: companies that offer good varieties and quality seeds would increase their momentum and become stronger.
– What needs to be done for the market to develop?
- It's a difficult question. The market is formed by demand, but in Russia there are often examples when farms grow potatoes for years (up to 9 years!) without renewing the seed material; in our country this is not controlled by anyone.
Small and medium-sized farms by law have the right, without paying royalties, to sow seeds of certain crops (including potatoes) for their needs for two years. What is two years? The farm buys the elite, produces the first reproduction and does not pay royalties. Then he makes a second reproduction and does not pay royalties. And further reproduction no longer makes sense.
Many large agricultural holdings grow seeds for themselves; this is considered a measure to reduce production costs.
The number of seed companies increases sharply after each unsuccessful year in terms of sales of commercial potatoes, because a kilogram of table products costs 6-8 rubles, and seed products cost at least 30.
I’m not trying to say that all this urgently needs to be banned, we just need to understand that these factors do not contribute to increased respect for the work of the breeder and the flourishing of breeding and seed companies.
But we work in the conditions that exist here and now. We are building a transparent interaction scheme, according to which we transfer the super-super-elite and super-elite to the farms that produce the elite and the first reproduction according to our order. We sell this seed material to enterprises that grow commercial potatoes. At the same time, we control the payment of royalties and pay them ourselves for certified volumes sold (when it comes to varieties from other breeding companies). And we believe that we are making our contribution to the streamlining and development of the seed market.