In 2025, apple harvesting may increase to 1.987 million tons from 1.6 million tons this year, according to a presentation by the Ministry of Agriculture, which Director of the Department of Plant Growing Roman Nekrasov presented at a round table in the Federation Council on the development of fruit and vegetable production, Interfax reports. “The task has been set to achieve self-sufficiency in apples in 2028, which today is about 87%, and to achieve production of 3 million tons of fruits and berries in the organized sector in 2030, including 2.7 million tons of apples,” the head of the department said.

According to the presentation, the Ministry of Agriculture estimates the potential for apple harvesting in 2028 at 2.4 million tons. By 2030, the area of ​​apple orchards is expected to increase by 30 thousand hectares, including 5.7 thousand hectares next year. At the same time, according to Nekrasov, the Ministry of Agriculture will stimulate the establishment of highly productive intensive gardens, especially in the regions of the Southern and North Caucasian Federal Districts.

The President of the Association of Gardeners Igor Mukhanin is confident that it is quite possible to achieve such indicators. “Such weather as this year, which literally destroyed the apple harvest in six regions, happens rarely - for the first time in 25 years,” he commented to Agroinvestor. - Last year, according to official data, we harvested 1.7 million tons of apples - these are fruits that are supplied directly to retail and for technical processing. There are also resellers, and the apples that they buy from gardeners - about 0.7 million tons - are not taken into account in the statistics.”

At the same time, the expert warns, the abolition of subsidies may hinder the development of gardening. “The Ministry of Agriculture promised that there will be money for this area until 2030,” he adds. It is also important to allow gardeners to earn money, and to do this, it is necessary to close the market to imported apples from July until the New Year. "The Ministry of Agriculture can do this, and then small farmers will have time to sell their harvest and make a profit. And large enterprises that put the fruits in storage and sell them after the New Year are not afraid of competition with imports," the head of the Association clarifies.

He also believes it is necessary to limit the import of planting material. "Our nurseries developed, invested money, knowledge, and now planting material is transported through Serbia, then through Moldova, then through the Baltics in large quantities. As a result, our nurseries simply burn their seedlings, although their quality is no worse than foreign ones," Mukhanin emphasizes. The expert clarifies that it is important and necessary to import individual new varieties for testing for the development of the industry, but the import of the same planting material that is in Russia harms its local producers and the development of domestic gardening as a whole.

Mukhanin has no doubt that next year we will get a harvest of almost 2 million tons of apples - he reminds that in those regions that "rested" this year - were left without a harvest, as a rule, the next year the harvest is 1.5-2 times higher than the average long-term figure. Gardening is still attractive to investors - the state compensates almost 100% of the costs of planting gardens. "However, the construction of refrigerators, irrigation systems, roads, electricity - these are the costs that are entirely borne by the business. And they are very significant," Mukhanin notes. In general, according to his estimates, it takes six to seven years to break even in gardening. The expert reminds that there used to be a program that compensated for the costs of installing substations, but it has expired. "If gardeners were supported in terms of subsidizing a certain share of the costs of developing business infrastructure, and not just planting gardens, then development would go faster," the expert is sure.