The Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria is famous for high mountains, picturesque gorges, pristine lakes and crystal waterfalls. And also with developed agriculture: endless orchards, abundant fields (CBD is famous for corn and beans). There are also good opportunities for growing potatoes. Zolsky Potato LLC allocated 190 hectares for the cultivation of this crop.
Zolsky Potato is a seed-growing enterprise specializing in the cultivation of seed material in the virus-free environment of the mountain and foothill zone of the KBR, at an altitude of up to 2 m.
On April 24, Viktor Kovalev, Development Director of Akrotrade Group of Companies, visited the Zolsky Potato farm. The general director of Zolsky Potato LLC Ruslan Bzhenikov gave him an excursion around his enterprise and talked about plans and prospects for the development of the economy.
The head of Zolsky Potato noted that much has changed in the market since his company has been growing potatoes (that is, since 2011): buyers are making more and more demands on the quality and presentation of the product, paying attention to packaging, forcing farmers move to a new level of production.
In a different way, they began to evaluate the role of potatoes for Kabardino-Balkaria and the authorities. With the advent of the new Minister of Agriculture of the Republic, Khasan Sizhazhev, much more attention has been paid to crop production. Machrail Shetov, Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, regularly visits the farms of the region and, together with farmers, discusses the possibility of increasing potato production in the region. The ministry is developing a program to support potato farms.
From the point of view of Ruslan Bzhenikov, for the development of the potato industry in the Republic, it is necessary to combine the efforts of producers of seed and food potatoes, as well as companies involved in the sale of products. So seed farms will understand what product is in demand on the market, and trade organizations will receive the desired, best-selling product.
At the end of the meeting, Viktor Kovalev and Ruslan Bzhenikov agreed on cooperation. In particular, Viktor promised to inform potato producers in the CBD in more detail about industry trends using all the platforms of the Potato System magazine (website, social media pages, telegram channel and chat). We hope that these channels are also useful for potato growers in other regions.