Plans to increase berry production raise doubts

By 2030, the area of berry fields in Russia is planned to increase by 6.2 thousand hectares, and the harvest of berries in the commercial sector is to reach 52 thousand tons, according to a presentation that Roman Nekrasov, Director of the Department of Plant Growing of the Ministry of Agriculture, presented in the Federation Council at a round table on the development of fruit and vegetable production. The department estimates the potential berry harvest in 2025 at 29.3 thousand tons against 19.5 thousand tons this year, Interfax writes. Irina Koziy, General Director of the Berry Union and Head of the Berry Academy project, recalls that in 2023, the berry harvest, according to Rosstat, was 25.4 thousand tons. “The current figure announced in the message, 19.5 thousand tons, shows a 23% decrease in the harvest compared to the previous year. This is a very significant drop, we hoped that it could be avoided,” she told Agroinvestor. As for the dynamics of the area under berry ...