Ukraine has imported Russian greenhouse cucumbers for the first time in history.
For many years Russia has been a net importer of fruits and vegetables, including from Ukraine.
For some time, some of the Ukrainian greenhouses worked only for the Russian market, but after 2014, Russian-oriented producers were forced to either close down or look for other sales markets.
The goods were partly delivered to Russia through Belarus, and partly they entered the Donbass through Russian intermediaries.
But difficult times have come for Ukrainian greenhouses: due to expensive gas, products are becoming almost «gold».
On the other hand, Russian greenhouse products, on the other hand, under the prevailing conditions have become more profitable in price when compared with other exporters, in particular with Turkey.
And this is taking into account the 10% import duty.
Cucumbers of Ukrainian production last week cost 38-45 hryvnia / kg ($ 1.44-1.7)
Turkish — about 40 hryvnia / kg
Russian — 60-80 rubles / kg ($ 0.82-1.09).
In October, many importers suspended purchases of Russian cucumbers due to the high cost, but in November, with the massive supply of products to the market, prices fell by 33%.
It should be noted that Poland also imports Russian cucumbers: over 8 months of this year, 580 tons were imported (for comparison, for the whole last year, Poland imported 224 tons of cucumbers from Russia).
At the same time, Poland itself is a major supplier of greenhouse products to the whole of Europe and to Ukraine as well.
Russia is actively increasing imports of greenhouse products: exports to foreign markets increased by 30%, and, for example, to Moldova — by 2.6 times.
To date, Russia has reached 90% in terms of self-sufficiency in greenhouse cucumbers, and in tomatoes — by 50%.
The greenhouse business in Russia receives broad government support: until 2019, there was a program for reimbursing investments for the construction, reconstruction or equipment of greenhouses (at this time, the program is focused mainly on regions where there are few greenhouses).
Over 5 years, more than 200 billion rubles have been invested in the greenhouse business, which made it possible to increase production more than 2 times — up to 1.3 million tons.
In Russia, more than a hundred hectares are occupied by modern fifth generation greenhouses. As a result, the yield has increased by more than 40% since 2012.
Of course, as in the entire agro-industrial complex, the profitability of the greenhouse business has declined due to higher prices for energy and imported seeds, equipment, etc.
But cheaper (relative to neighboring countries) gas, which occupies a large share in the cost of goods, gives Russia a competitive advantage.
