Meindert den Ouden has been a consultant in Russian agriculture for 25 years. During the first years he worked mostly on introducing machinery. In recent years those activities have shifted to cultivation counselling. The Dutch cultivator often makes ten-day trips to provide his customers with counselling during the season. It was no surprise to him that Russia became self-supporting. “It became clear twenty years ago that Russia would only need imported potatoes occasionally, and that it would never be a permanent market for countries such as the Netherlands. It might have taken them a bit longer, but it became true in the end, and it accelerated after the boycott and economic crisis.”
“I mainly work for companies that have been cultivating potatoes for a few years already, and then meet with some problems. They then give me a ring to act as troubleshooter,” explains Den Ouden. He meets an enormous variety of companies. “The country is vast. Some companies have their business in good order, but mostly the companies are too big – 30,000 hectares is not unusual in Russia – to pay attention to every aspect. I am convinced, especially for the cultivation of potatoes, that people are putting their money on the wrong companies. Some companies manage to get 60 tonnes of potatoes from one hectare, but the majority now end up with 30-35 tonnes. Much more incentive should exist for medium-sized companies of, let’s say, 1,000 to 4,000 hectares. That is big enough to optimally execute operational management. There are some support programmes, but it is mostly the smaller companies who make off with those. You can see Russians are fairly successful with less complicated cultivation, for example of grain. But fresh produce and large-scale companies are less successful in proportion to each other.”
“The owner or financier of the cultivation company often does not have an agrarian background. In the Netherlands, you build a company based on knowledge and experience, but in Russia they often do not bother with any of that, in order to build the company faster. For example, they can put down six million euro for the cultivation of potatoes, and they may also have the hardware, but they often miss the feeling and experience needed to be a good cultivator. Besides, the Russian mindset is more Asian than European: the big boss makes all of the decisions, and the rest of the company follows those decisions and does not take initiative. Russians look at the absolute amounts that are invested into the companies, and not at what is done with that investment per hectare. For example, a budget is agreed upon for fighting phytophthora, but they do not anticipate weather conditions,” Den Ouden says. “Another bottleneck is the supply of seeds. Virus pressure is high in this, causing lower yields. The cultivation of seeds is often irrelevant for large companies, which are more interested in selection and spraying. The experience of one hundred years in seeds that the Netherlands has, is lacking in Russia, after all.”
“Cultivation in Russia has definitely become more professional, and the acquisition of machinery is going very well. Up-to-date storage locations are also being built, but we have smaller examples as well, mostly because people choose above-ground ventilation. This means the cells are being built too wide, and cones are created during harvest time, meaning air distribution cannot be optimally distributed. Things such as crop rotation and soil fertility are neglected. Especially those companies closer to the storage locations cultivate potatoes more often. People first want to make a profit, and only then are they willing to listen to your story. They do not always look properly at aspects such as using weed killer or intake lines, but when rot enters the barn, they ring me,” Den Ouden continues.
“Many cultivators supply to wholesaler’s markets, but Armenians also buy entire cargoes, which they then sell to local markets. A significant number of companies focus on washing and packaging potatoes as well. Russian retail is familiar with the quality of potatoes from Israel and, before that, from Europe, which has put the bar higher, in terms of quality expectations,” Den Ouden says. The degree of self-sufficiency in Russia is increasing quickly according to him. “Import is only necessary for cultivations that are less suitable climate-wise, such as greenhouse cultivation, but for potatoes, onions and carrots that is often not the case. Particularly in villages, many consumers own small plots of land. These are not the small vegetable gardens that we know, but often they are half a hectare, or even a full hectare. That cultivation has increased sharply since last year, causing prices to be particularly bad.”
Onion cultivation
“The Russian onion cultivation has developed sharply particularly in the south of Russia. They often work with drip irrigation there. The climate is actually well suited with its low humidity, but pressure from diseases is enormous. The problem is that people often want to specialise in cultivating, for example, onions, causing cultivation frequency to be enormous. People cultivate about 1 to 2 or 1 to 3 onions, resulting in more frequent spraying against downy mildew than in the Netherlands,” explains Den Ouden. He is therefore not worried his work will become obsolete. He signs off with the well-known saying that he is teaching a man to fish. “Knowledge is for sale all over the world. If not me, they will get a Frenchman or a German.”