The dark secret of young potatoes at 100 rubles per kilogram is revealed

As it should be at this time of year, autumn bestows its bounties on us. Unlike last year, when domestic vegetables grew in price almost every day, this season surprises with the cheapness of the “borscht set”. In large chain stores, potatoes for a promotion of 11-15 rubles a kilogram, onions – 18 rubles, carrots – 11, cabbage – 12 rubles …

Near the supermarket, on the vegetable “collapse”, a small crowd of onlookers. They look with surprise at potatoes for … 100 rubles a kilogram. A brisk saleswoman explains that these are young tubers from the Krasnodar Territory.

– Here she is now, in early October, really young, like the one that happens in early May? – we asked Evgeny Simakov – Doctor of Agricultural Sciences, Chief Researcher of the Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution “Federal Research Center for Potato named after A.I. Lorcha.”

“I can’t say she’s young,” he replied. – Most likely, this is the second crop, planted in July and harvested these days. The sellers say that it is Russian, but I suspect that these are deliveries from Azerbaijan.

– As Ilf and Petrov wrote in “12 Chairs”, “the young woman was not young”?

– Exactly. Now is not the time to dig up young tubers. Agree that those that today go on sale in large quantities right from the field are also not old. They weren’t even in storage. Why buy a “young” one for 100 rubles, if now a good one, which can be purchased in nets for the winter, for storage, costs 20-25 rubles? This is a scam and waste of money.

– Now vegetable abundance, and what to expect in the spring? Usually, since March, Russia begins to buy “second bread” for imports. Given the sanctions, will we be able to do this next spring, when our storage facilities are empty?

– There will be no shortage. It can be assumed that the West will increase pressure on our friendly countries so that they do not help, refuse contracts. But the supply of potatoes, as a rule, comes from many countries: Pakistan, India, Turkey, China, Azerbaijan. Where should Azerbaijan put its potatoes? They’ll take us. This is business.

– And if the West refuses to sell us potato seeds? After all, we are heavily dependent on such supplies …

– Maybe I will express not a very popular opinion, but he would rather refuse to supply Russia with seed potatoes! We would quickly start creating our own seed fund. In the USSR, there was a domestic seed base and we had enough of our “second bread”. Today we are actively dealing with this issue, new seed farms have appeared in the country, old ones have been reanimated, they have updated their base.

– Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation Dmitry Patrushev recently said that the country is preparing to completely switch to seeds of its own selection. Such conversations have been going on for a long time, but things, as they say, are still there …

.- The program has existed since 2017, and such work is being carried out, funds are being allocated to farms. There are many problems here, one of them is statistics, or rather its absence. Until recently, we did not have information about how many and what kind of potatoes were planted in the regions, how much seed tubers, and so on. It was believed that business itself knew how to conduct production, and he did not particularly like to report to the state.

But this is wrong! The state invests heavily in the development of the industry and should know how they are spent. Down to each hectare: what varieties are used, what is their yield, and so on. Such statistics were in Soviet times. Now the Ministry of Agriculture and Rosselkhoznadzor are dealing with these issues. In any case, we have our own seed material, there is an assortment. Let not so fruitful, but your own. And for the food security of the country we have enough.