NFO reports that the apple cultivation in Russia has grown strongly since the boycott and will continue to do so over the coming years. The share of Russian apples on the domestic market has now risen to 69 percent. Last year Russian growers harvested a total of 900,000 tonnes of apples. The plan is to extend the production to 1.3 million tonnes in 2024. To achieve this goal, around 15,000 hectares of orchards are being planted annually. Many orchards are planted within large projects with ten and sometimes hundreds of hectares at once. New orchards are intensive cultivations where productions of 40 to 70 tonnes per hectare are achievable. Traditional cultivations only reach around 12 tonnes of production per hectare. Most of Russian production comes from intensive cultivation.
Vostock Capital analysts took an overview of the Russian apple cultivation, based on figures from the Russian ministry of agriculture. They expect the domestic demand for apples to continue to grow more strongly than the production over the coming years, despite its strong growth. The growth in apple production, however, does not show in the figures that was shown to Prognosfruit. In those figures there was no rising line in the Russian apple production. Night frost prevented that this year.
It is a challenge for the sector to import good quality starting material, good machine and the necessary tools for cultivation. According to the analysts the imported trees aren't always of the best quality and it is better to grow your own trees. The government stimulates this with 20 percent subsidy for starting up nurseries, among others. The Russian government also stimulates the apple cultivation with favourable loans and 20 percent subsidies for building cooling warehouses.
Click here to read the full report
Source: NFO