Thanks to large subsidies for agrarian projects and the boycott by Europe, horticulture has become one of the most lucrative investment opportunities in Russia. Additionally, year-round production is becoming increasingly important. The off-season volume has increased by 18 per cent in the past three years, according to the Russian Ministry of Agriculture. The Ministry has promised 1,500 hectares of greenhouses by 2020, which should be sufficient to meet domestic demand during the winter months. The government supports 20 per cent of the costs for newly built greenhouses, but subsidies will also be granted for renewing existing greenhouses.
However, investors are looking further afield and hope to raise production enough to create a space for exports. Russo-Japanese company JGC Evergreen, harvest their first products for the domestic market this year. In coming years, the company wants to increase exports to China. Greenhouse cultivation has become an attractive sector for investments, in part due to cheap energy. Russian businessmen who accumulated their wealth in other sectors, have also been increasingly investing in horticulture in recent years. The Chinese market is an attractive export market. Chinese consumers consider Russian vegetables, just as other imported vegetables, to be quite natural.