Two entrepreneurs have become residents of the Russian Arctic and are planning to grow potatoes. In Pinezhye (a municipality in the Arkhangelsk region), potatoes are grown relatively recently. Until Soviet times, the fields were usually occupied with barley. And in the difficult nineties, when wages were not paid for months, potatoes became the first bread.
A goarctic.ru correspondent from Pinega talked to the chief specialist of the new Arctic resident Sergey Fedchenko and found out how entrepreneurs are going to develop their economy.
Sergey Fedchenko took up potato production at the end of the last century together with his father. About six years ago, he reached a new level and organized a peasant farm, but the experience was unsuccessful due to economic conditions.
The decision to resume potato production came when Pinezhye began to distribute land under the Arctic Hectare program, and the area itself became part of the special economic zone of the Russian Arctic. Entrepreneurs receive tax breaks and subsidized interest rates on loans.
Sergey Fedchenko, together with his partner Alexander Orekhov, signed a ten-year agreement with the Corporation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic – they will invest about three million rubles in production and employ about twenty people. The land was received under the Arctic Hectare program and almost 25 hectares will be developed near the village of Kulogory. Farmers plan to collect up to half a thousand tons of marketable potatoes.
Farmers plan to sell most of the harvest within the region, they say that Pinega potatoes are quickly sold out because of the taste and long shelf life. Even residents of the Krasnodar Territory buy it.
“We have purchased two vegetable stores. We have a transport that will deliver potatoes to Arkhangelsk. From there we will deliver around the city and its environs, a carrier has already been found there for these purposes. We will also sell some part to wholesalers from other regions, who independently pick up potatoes from us. And since we now have a large vegetable store, we will leave part of the potatoes for long-term storage and sell them throughout the year, including for the local population,” Sergey Fedchenko said.
The cost of production will be reduced through the introduction of automation and mechanization of labor.
The conditions for farming in the Arctic are, at first glance, difficult. But in the minuses you can always find the pros. Potatoes love a cool climate, and because of the harsh conditions, pests do not reach Pinezhye. Pest control is not necessary, it reduces costs and improves palatability.
“In the north, there is a more favorable climate for storing potatoes at the initial stage after harvest and before the onset of cold weather. Well, from an environmental point of view, our potatoes are cleaner: we do not use pesticides, chemicals from diseases and pests,” the entrepreneur emphasizes.
Recall that three Norilsk and Dudinsk investors have become new residents of the Arctic. We previously shared how a farm in the Arctic has become the best family business for tourists. TT also wrote that a metallurgist from Monchegorsk will create a rabbit breeding farm in the Arctic, and another resident plans to build a “Mayak” for tourists next to the waterfall.
