Over the next five years, the share of imported vegetables on the Russian market may decrease from 16% to 10%. This forecast is given by the Center for Industry Expertise of the Russian Agricultural Bank. According to the forecast, in 2019, 558,000 mt of tomatoes and about 100,000 mt of cucumbers were imported to the Russian Federation, and by 2025 the import of these products may decrease to 347,000 mt and 36,000 mt, respectively.
According to forecasts of the Ministry of Agriculture, this year the production of greenhouse vegetables will increase by 6.1%, to 1.25 million mt year-on-year, which will be a record figure. The Center for Industry Expertise of the Russian Agricultural Bank expects that Russian operators of greenhouse facilities will continue to increase production by an average of 7% per year. And the consumption of fresh vegetables in the country will grow by about 1% annually and will reach 115 kg per capita by 2028. Today it is 109 kg per capita.
Producers of greenhouse vegetables applied to the Ministry of Agriculture with a request to allocate 5 billion rubles from the budget of incentive subsidies to compensate for the part of the costs. As noted in the association “Greenhouses of Russia”, options for supporting the greenhouse industry needs to be intensified, as companies are faced with a decrease in consumer demand and the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the profitability of greenhouse operators fell to 5-7%.