What will stop the rise in prices for cucumbers and tomatoes: importers reduce supplies

Although we are proud of the success in the development of greenhouse production of vegetables, the prices for them are growing. In some regions, they reach up to 500 rubles per kilogram. So in the first week of the new year, they again showed their stubborn disposition. Cucumbers with tomatoes added 13% in price. Blame, it turns out, foreign importers. Last year (since October) supplies of vitamin products from China, Turkey, Georgia, Serbia and North Macedonia sharply decreased. But what about our production of greenhouse vegetables?

The question is, why does domestic greenhouse production react so painfully to seasonality? After all, it is year-round – both in winter and summer … In winter, even more than in summer, because such an industry was conceived with the expectation that greenhouse vegetables would be uninterruptedly supplied to the table of workers all year round.

And it turns out that in the summer the red price, for example, of cucumbers was 60-65 rubles per kilogram, and now it is almost 5 times more. Back in December, smooth long-fruited cucumbers in Moscow could be bought for 90 rubles, now 219, medium-fruited prickly 279. Everything that is cheaper on the shelves does not look like food at all.

In St. Petersburg, both long-fruited and short-fruited are generally 400-500 rubles each. Since for a simple buyer the prices are too expensive, but they want a salad, they are sold by the piece, like Snickers bars.

In general, the story of cucumbers is like this. Last year we produced 890 thousand tons of them, self-sufficiency reaches almost 100%. Small volumes come to us only from China – for the regions of the Far East.

For some unknown reason, domestic farmers continue to increase the production of cucumbers, which does not please the greenhouse growers at all. After all, their price falls, especially in the summer-autumn period. Last summer they were 60 rubles per kilogram.

Apparently, the calculation is that Russia will export greenhouse cucumbers to other countries. But the imposed economic sanctions do not allow us to organize such deliveries.

Unlike cucumbers, well done, Russians are self-sufficient in tomatoes only by 62%. The remaining volumes are purchased by import, which also affects the retail price of tomatoes. Those who themselves ask for a hand (called “pink farmer”) 390-420 rubles a kilogram. Decent-looking Azerbaijani – 370, which is also quite expensive, plum-shaped and just pink from 240 to 260 rubles …

According to statistics, in 2022, Russian greenhouses grew 670 thousand tons of tomatoes, 6% more than in the previous year. However, the supply of tomatoes from China, Turkey, Georgia, Serbia and North Macedonia, compared to 2021, has declined sharply. Either they themselves have a crop failure, or they are afraid of secondary sanctions. One way or another, 1.4 times less tomatoes came to our market from China, and two times less from Turkey. The rest of the states supplied three times less, only 0.9 thousand tons of tomatoes. We can say that only our main supplier, Azerbaijan, with 110,000 tons, is holding on with the last of his strength, although this volume is also slightly below the level of 2021.

But why does it happen that the area under greenhouse crops in Russia is constantly growing (last year they increased by another 280 hectares), while the supply (that is, prices) is still there? In the sense – and do not think to fall …

The farmers themselves say that it cannot be otherwise. In 2010, the MTZ-80 wheeled tractor cost 300 thousand rubles, and a kilogram of cucumbers cost 60-70 rubles. Today, such a tractor costs 2 million rubles. So, how much should the same cucumbers cost? 1500-1800 rubles. And producers sell them for 400. “If everything is getting more expensive, then why should vegetables be getting cheaper?” farmers ask themselves.

Since this year, electricity tariffs for greenhouse complexes have doubled in the country. Everyone who has invested in production can close, because electricity is more than 40% of the costs …

In order to save money, it is more profitable for domestic complexes in the winter months to become prophylactic and prepare for the spring sowing. And you and I – to hope that the importers will not let us down.

Now there was a failure in logistics – and prices began to bite. As experts predict – until March, when the harvest of domestic production will go.

Experts also say that in the closed ground we make the main bet on capital expensive objects. Allegedly, we have no other way, because we are not Turkey or Azerbaijan, but a real northern power, and there is no other way for us. Business is trying to quickly “recapture” construction costs (that is, raise prices for their products) and return loans to the state.

But in even more northern countries – Finland, Denmark and others – light tunnel film greenhouses are being built, where strawberries, cherries, and apricots are grown in winter.

It remains to wait for the summer, when nature itself will remove the difficulties that we come up with in order to heroically overcome them.