The ex-senator went for potatoes – Newspaper Kommersant No. 18 (7463) dated 02/01/2023

Structures associated with ex-senator Gleb Fetisov are preparing to significantly expand the portfolio of agricultural projects. Now it can include three potato farms that manage about 40 thousand hectares of agricultural land in the Nizhny Novgorod, Bryansk and Astrakhan regions. The share of the organized sector in the market will grow due to the decrease in the collection of potatoes in private farms, but wholesale prices remain below last year.

Agro-Industrial Complex LLC, associated with ex-senator Gleb Fetisov, filed petitions with the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) for the acquisition of potato producers Aksentis LLC and Putsko Farming Enterprise LLC. The notification is in the FAS database.

Aksentis specializes in the production of seed potatoes. According to its own data, it manages 6 thousand hectares of agricultural land in the Nizhny Novgorod region, a laboratory and a greenhouse complex with a capacity of 650 thousand mini-tubers per year. “Putsko Farm” grows potatoes, wheat and corn on more than 20 thousand hectares in the Bryansk region. As follows from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, these companies also jointly own more than 60% in the Astrakhan potato supplier Maps LLC with a land bank of 12,000 hectares. In these three companies, Kommersant’s questions were not answered.

According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, AIC, through LLC Irriko, owns ZPIF Signet – Investments 1, managed by Signet Capital. This company is owned by Pavel Polukhin, CEO of the Gubernsky consortium, whose beneficiary is Gleb Fetisov. The fund also owns the Yakhroma agricultural holding with assets in the Moscow region and the Tambov region and the Stavropol GC Irriko. The total land bank of assets is more than 40,000 hectares, where potatoes, open-field vegetables and grain are grown, according to the Signet Capital website. Thus, obtaining control in three more farms will allow the owner of Irriko to increase the area of ​​agricultural land to 80 thousand hectares in six different regions. Signet Capital and Irrico Group did not provide any comments.

Aleksey Krasilnikov, Executive Director of the Union of Potato and Vegetable Market Participants, says that Aksentis is one of the three largest seed potato producers in Russia, a farm in the Bryansk region supplies a fairly large volume of products to the domestic market, and MAPS is primarily a producer of early potatoes. The deal will allow Irrico to expand its presence in all market segments, he points out. Tamara Reshetnikova, General Director of Technologies of Growth, says that the main problem for potato producers is the availability of storage capacities. She estimates that about a third of the harvest must be stored from July until early next year, and another third until next June, to be able to compete with imports.

Aleksey Krasilnikov notes that Rosstat records a reduction in the area in personal subsidiary plots (PSP) for potatoes, crop production in PSF decreases annually by 1 million tons, which means that the share of the commodity sector in the medium and long term should grow. In addition, he adds, an increase in commercial potato production could support the introduction of new processing capacity, including for the production of french fries and chips, as well as government support for the crop sector.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, in 2022, agricultural enterprises and farms increased the harvest of potatoes by 9.1% year-on-year, to 7.2 million tons. In 2023, it is planned to allocate 5 billion rubles for potato and vegetable producers. subsidies, which is twice as much as a year earlier. And by 2025, potato production in the organized sector should reach 7.5 million tons, the Ministry of Agriculture reported. But the pricing environment in the industry remains difficult, notes Alexei Krasilnikov. According to market participants, as of January 31, 2023, wholesale prices for potatoes were 35-40% lower than a year earlier.

Investment banker Ilya Shumov notes that a strong decline in wholesale prices for potatoes in 2022 may encourage owners of small vegetable farms to look for buyers for the business. And this, he adds, will in turn create new M&A opportunities in the open field vegetable market.

Anatoly Kostyrev