Representatives of the rpc Group of Companies took part in the II Agricultural Forum “Russian Greenhouse Industry – 2021”, a platform for the exchange of innovative experience between colleagues from other regions and countries, which took place on June 25, 2021 in Krasnodar. 18 companies placed stands at the forum with their products and equipment. Participants represented 68 constituent entities of the Russian Federation, as well as foreign countries – Spain, Israel and Armenia.
The forum featured a rich program of presentations by experts and market analysts, as well as experienced practitioners. We discussed topics such as:
1) Russian greenhouse vegetable growing: the state of the industry, development prospects, state support in the current conditions.
2) Forecasts of changes in the balance of supply and demand in the greenhouse market in 2020–2021.
3) Principles of greenhouse planning: site selection, technical conditions, designs, selection of equipment.
4) Hormonal cycle and plants’ own immunity against fungi, viruses, bacteria and insects.
5) Current challenges of biologized and chemical protection in a closed agrocenosis of highly intensive greenhouse production, and others.
The first session was opened by Andrey Medvedev, vice-president of the Greenhouses of Russia Association. The speaker spoke about the state and prospects for the development of the protected ground sector, which has been almost completely modernized in recent years. The report examined issues of self-sufficiency in greenhouse products, issues of the dynamics and structure of exports and imports of vegetable products, fluctuations in domestic wholesale prices for tomatoes and cucumbers. According to Rosstat, there is a positive trend in increasing the area of winter greenhouses and the gross production of protected soil vegetables in them. The level of self-sufficiency in greenhouse products is growing every year. According to the Federal Customs Service of Russia, it is worth noting that imports of vegetable products are decreasing every year, while exports are increasing. Andrei Medvedev also noted the production of cultivated mushrooms, created almost from scratch over the past seven years. At the end of the report, Andrei Medvedev spoke about current government support measures – preferential short-term and investment lending.
The topic of the state of the industry was continued by Tamara Reshetnikova, General Director of the research company Growth Technologies, making a report “Forecasts of changes in the balance of supply and demand in the Russian greenhouse market in 2021.” The growth rate of the industry over the past 7 years has exceeded 100%; greenhouse vegetable growing is one of the fastest growing industries in the country. There has been a sharp decrease in dependence on the share of foreign supplies of the domestic vegetable market for non-seasonal products. Tamara Reshetnikova noted that the shortage of domestic production of tomatoes, cucumbers and other vegetables is decreasing every year. The largest deficit in the production of greenhouse vegetables to replace imports and satisfy effective demand is observed in the Central Federal District.
All these, and other, questions are acute for ordinary farmers and industrial producers of agricultural products in Russia and the rpc Group of Companies, being part of this large and very important process for the country, does not for a second turn away from close joint work. Tamara Reshetnikova noted that the export of domestic products will continue to grow.
