Russia: Sanctions call into question further growth in tomato production

Published 2023년 3월 20일

Tridge summary

The article highlights the challenges Russia faces in achieving self-sufficiency in tomato seeds for protected ground due to sanctions, despite a decrease in imports over the past seven years. The country has seen a significant increase in the production of protected ground tomatoes and cucumbers, with cucumber imports notably reducing to the point where they are no longer relevant for the European part of Russia, but still pose a self-sufficiency issue in Siberia and the Far East. The production of borscht vegetables shows no clear growth trend, with self-sufficiency nearly reached, and potato imports from Egypt remain competitive. An unusual situation with onion prices arose due to export restrictions from several Central Asian countries, but the market has since stabilized.

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Original content

Difficulties with the import of tomato seeds for protected ground caused by sanctions may call into question the further growth of self-sufficiency. Varvara Serdyukova, senior expert at the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR), said this during the form “Magnit and agribusiness: partnership in the interests of buyers”. According to her, protected ground tomatoes are a very vivid example of import substitution in Russia. So, over the past seven years, their production in the commercial sector has almost doubled. Market capacity during this time increased by 46%. But, despite the fact that self-sufficiency in tomatoes is growing, during the off-season, imports are actively coming to Russia. “The dynamics of imports is declining in terms of the intensity of product supplies <...>. Over the past seven years, import volumes have decreased by 18%, and this is a fairly confident indicator,” says Serdyukova. Azerbaijan was the leader in the supply of tomatoes in 2022, which ...

Source: AgroInvestor