Greenhouse vegetables production in the Russian Federation in the past few years have been showing positive dynamics. In 2019 the gross yield of greenhouse vegetables is forecasted to reach 1240 thousand tons, which is 14% higher compared to 2018 (1082.3 thousand tons) and 34.4% higher than in 2017 (922.2 thousand tons) – see graph 1.
Graph 1. Dynamics of greenhouse vegetables gross yield
According to the preliminary numbers, by the end of 2019 the acreage of new and modernized greenhouses should have amounted to 300 ha, due to which the overall acreage of winter greenhouses should have reached 2 800 ha – see graph 2.
Vegetable supply of the population of the Russian Federation in the season in 2019 should comprise 60% (53% in 2018). Local greenhouse vegetable production significantly vary depending on the country region, which is related to the geographical preferences of new major industrial projects’ investors. The highest rating in the off-peak season has been shown in the Northern Caucasus, Southern and Central federal districts.
Graph 2. The dynamics of greenhouse acreage growth
Graph 3. Average selling price on cucumbers in 2018
Graph 4. Average selling price on cucumbers in 2019
According to the official data of the Federal Service of State Statistics, the average price on cucumbers for the period of January – October 2019 has reached 1.14 euro.
With that the average selling price on tomatoes in the Russian Federation for the same period has comprised 1.38 euro – see graph 5. In 2019, the average annual selling price on tomatoes by the local greenhouses was 16.6% to that on cucumbers.
Graph 5. The average selling price on tomatoes in 2018
The Central federal district became the area with the lowest average annual prices on greenhouse cucumbers (0.84 euro) and the maximum prices were witnessed in the Northeastern and Far East federal districts. As for tomatoes, apart from the above mentioned areas, they were noticed in the greenhouses in Central federal district.
Graph 6. The average annual selling price on tomatoes in 2019
Annually almost all kinds of fresh vegetables are imported in the Russian Federation from all over the world. In 2014-2015 due to the product embargo, import volume has decreased in all segments, including greenhouse vegetables and greenery. The whole 2015 was characterized by the active reshaping of the imported vegetables. The changes were related both to the supplying countries and to the vegetable sale prices as well as to the variety of produce and its quality. However, in 2017 for the first time in 3 years vegetable import started growing again.
| Crop | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 (Q1-3) | |||
| cost in million rubles | weight, thousand tons | cost in million rubles | weight, thousand tons | cost in million rubles | weight, thousand tons | |
| fresh or cooled tomatoes | 32,733.2 | 519.3 | 39,733.4 | 578.0 | 31,373.8 | 419.5 |
| fresh or cooled cucumbers or pickles | 8,553.1 | 134.7 | 7,779.8 | 123.0 | 4,219.6 | 62.6 |
| total | 41,286.3 | 654.0 | 47,513.2 | 701.0 | 35,593.4 | 482.1 |
Graph 7. Import of vegetable produce
The tendency continued in the third quarter of 2019. Thus, tomato import amounted to 419.5 thousand tons and that of cucumbers to 62.6. thousand tons – see graph 7.
| Crop | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 (Q1-3) | |||
| cost in million rubles | weight, thousand tons | cost in million rubles | weight, thousand tons | cost in million rubles | weight, thousand tons | |
| fresh or cooled tomatoes | 255.4 | 12.6 | 308.9 | 15.4 | 283.8 | 12.6 |
| fresh or cooled cucumbers or pickles | 222.1 | 9.7 | 332.4 | 13.2 | 149.5 | 9.6 |
| total | 477.5 | 22.3 | 641.3 | 28.6 | 433.3 | 21.9 |
Graph 8. Export of vegetable produce in 2017-2018, 2019 as of 01.10.2019
Vegetable export from the Russian Federation has been insignificant for a number of years and always constituted less than 1 thousand tons. Beginning from 2015, export volumes increased dramatically due to the new end markets appearing, i.e. southern areas of Ukraine. Thus, 87-89% of the exported vegetables were delivered to Ukraine in 2015-2017. According to the results of 2018, the maximum volumes of greenhouse vegetables export were witnessed: Russia supplied 28.6 thousand tons of vegetables, among which there were 15.4 thousand tons of tomatoes and 13.2 thousand tons of cucumbers. In the third quarter of 2019, the number reached 12.6 thousand tons for tomatoes and 9.6 thousand tons for cucumbers – see graph 8.
The final results of the year will appear at the end of February 2020.
For more information:
Greenhouses of Russia
rusteplica.ru