The Ministry of Agriculture announced good prerequisites for an increase in the potato crop in 2022 Lupekhin, could fix the 2022 harvest. The Ministry of Agriculture said that they see good prerequisites for increasing it, RIA Novosti reports.
The representative of the department indicated that the regional authorities of the agro-industrial complex promise to increase the area of potato planting by 20 thousand hectares in 2022. At the same time, agrotechnical measures are being taken to increase yields.
To eliminate problems in a few years, the Ministry of Agriculture is developing a federal draft of measures aimed at increasing production and improving the infrastructure for storing vegetables. In total, it is planned to allocate about five billion rubles for the accelerated development of the vegetable growing industry in 2022.
In the coming years, the level of support should increase; in the future, potato production is expected to increase by 15 percent compared to the current level. The department recalled that the Potato Union should prepare a forecast for increasing storage and processing capacities in each constituent entity of the Federation.
Market participants believe that if the authorities do not start subsidizing potato production, to close the deficit, additional volumes will have to be purchased for abroad. The reasons for the emergence of problems were an increase in processing capacity and a reduction in production on private farms. The drop in yield due to drought also affected.
According to the industry union, about a million tons of potatoes were processed in 2021, but 1.5 million are expected in 2022. By 2026, the figure threatens to grow to 3 million tons. Oleksiy Anashko, Industrial Director of Mareven, did not rule out that the cost of raw materials for potato flakes will grow by one and a half times due to the emerging shortage.