Crimean strawberries are ahead of Kuban ones and have already sold out to Moscow and St. Petersburg shopping centers
In Crimea Due to the hot spring, the strawberries ripened several weeks earlier. While the harvest is ongoing in greenhouses, in open ground, night temperatures still limit the harvest.
But in general, the year will be “strawberry,” says the director of one of the farms in the village of Kholmovka near Bakhchisarai, Andrei Kozdoba, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
A greenhouse farm for growing garden strawberries, what is the correct name for strawberries, was built in the Bakhchisarai region back in 2009. For the Italian “Clery” variety, which is of high quality both in taste and in resistance to transportation, we chose the Belbek Valley, where the climate is quite mild and there is a lot of moisture and minerals in the soil.
“This year is our 15th anniversary. Our strawberries are originally presented in the store at the enterprise and are supplied to the main cities - Moscow and St. Petersburg. And then it spreads throughout all regions of the country. “Clery” is an early variety, and in terms of its combination of taste and aroma it is most suitable for our customers. We try to use biomaterials – mineral fertilizers and entomophages to combat pests,” says Kozdoba.
Strawberries travel along the “land corridor” to megacities faster than along the Crimean Bridge, and remains intact - thanks to the repaired road - there is no shaking, and the berry does not wrinkle. A day later it is already in Moscow in the Food City grocery complex, where it is being snapped up for retail sale, despite the high price - up to 600 rubles per 1 kg. In the domestic market, the price excluding transport costs is lower, but still high.
“Everything has its price. If a product is of high quality, it cannot be sold cheaper. Yes, we have the most expensive strawberries. But it is of high quality, and this is confirmed by our customers who do not look around. Yalta, Simferopol, Sevastopol, Evpatoria - everyone comes to us for strawberries, we don’t bring them. People understand what they pay for,” notes the director of the enterprise.
The advantage of Crimean strawberries in early ripening, and while the Krasnodar region is just starting to collect the first harvest, Crimea will already terminate it.
“The market is flooded with strawberries. Türkiye and Greece start earlier than us, and we start earlier than Krasnodar by a couple of weeks. The Turks and Greeks collect the main harvest in March, so by April everything is already filled up, and the price of imports is lower - their season is ending, their market is also overheated. They need to go anywhere. They pick the green ones, treat them with a certain substance, and the strawberries turn red. At the same time, it crunches like a cucumber and has no taste,” explains the farmer.
However, Kozdoba would have taken another 10 hectares to the existing ones for greenhouses, even without government assistance. It all comes down not to hectares, but to people - the enterprise constantly employs 50 people, and the same amount must be added for three months of harvesting. Mostly women work. You need dexterity, accuracy and delicacy in handling the berries. After 10 am, strawberries are no longer picked - due to the heat, the peel becomes very soft and wrinkles quickly.
Two years ago, the greenhouses were washed away during a flood. Released from reservoirs the water did not flow along the river bed, but where it ran before - through the fields. Everything was demolished in 5 hours. And then the state came to the rescue, compensating the costs and giving them the opportunity to survive until the next harvest.
"By the way, I doubt that in Ukraine they would have given us anything to keep our pants up. And here, without any bribes, without kickbacks, upon provision of documents and after the commission visited the site, they gave us money,” the manager emphasizes.
He considers the most important advantage of moving to the Russian Federation an almost bottomless market that is capable of absorbing the entire harvest, as long as it reaches the counter in marketable form. This, according to Kozdoba, is the main thing advantage of greenhouse strawberries over competitors' products in the Kherson region. The berries from Perekop in Simferopol need to be sold a day before; they won’t last until the next day. A after two days on the road, the Kholmov strawberry will “wag” its fresh green tail for another three days thanks to rapid cooling after harvest.
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