In this article, we will try to review various segments of the greenhouse business, as well as clarify some issues regarding technology.
We’ll make a reservation right away: it makes sense to start a greenhouse business only in the southern regions of our country. The fact is that market players have calculated: it is more profitable to transport cultivated goods from south to north than to incur losses from gas and electricity costs in the northern regions.
Moreover, suppliers of both gas and electricity put such conditions, without thinking about the specifics of the greenhouse economy, that business can be ruined in the bud. So, for example, they allocate a quota for a certain amount of electricity, and then they are fined for both overspending and ... underconsumption! Where is the logic? Manufacturers say that such laws, drafted by people who do not know anything about temperature extremes and weather changes outside the window, impede the domestic greenhouse business.
However, it should be remembered: transportation becomes profitable only when you have established logistics, otherwise you will not save not only 10 rubles on cost (according to experts), but you will lose. All major metropolitan agricultural firms (which can afford the most advanced logistics) “transfer” their land to the Stavropol and Krasnodar Territories. In the south, not only warmer, not only higher daylight hours. There are cheaper hands and the land itself. Plus, the administration of the Krasnodar Territory subsidizes 50% for starting a business, according to media reports.
In order to break even, the greenhouse must have a profitability of at least 20%.
Greenhouse Business: What to grow?
Greenhouse business experts agree that it is most profitable to grow flowers. Then the greens. And only then - vegetables.
Investments in the flower greenhouse business exceeded the "vegetable" 5 times! The most fashionable area of greenhouse activity today has been the cultivation of greens - lettuce, onions, chicken, and so on. Greens are easy to grow, do not require as much light and heat as vegetables - and it does not need to be taken anywhere.
A greenhouse should serve a nearby village - this is the practice. Greenhouse cultivation of salads is 4 times more profitable than vegetables!
greenhouse business: Technologies: pros and cons
The cheapest technology is hydroponics. It allows you not to depend on nature, weather, it completely turns agriculture into an industry. Without risks (calculates everything and the computer monitors everything), any farmer wants to live. The hydroponic system gives it. The plant goes through its vegetative cycle (grows and ripens) several times faster, since it does not grow in natural soil, but in a "glass" of water. But in the cup it’s not just water - liquid fertilizers are supplied through the tubes in a dropwise way. It is as if a person did not live his life, periodically preparing his own dinner, and all his life lay under a dropper. Such plants grown "under a dropper" have a special taste - that is, no taste ... And the domestic consumer is very good at distinguishing the taste of the "Turkish" product (as people popularly recognize "hydroponics) from the taste of the product grown in his country house or purchased on the collective farm market.
That is, it is unprofitable to venture with hydroponics. Our consumer does not recognize artificial vegetables. Although it is unlikely that year-round lettuce and greens are grown only on hydroponics. So, if hydroponics is only for the green business.
By the way, the advocates of hydroponics (and, of course, they have advocates - this is a business) say that “industrial” cultivation in the ground leads to the fact that uncontrolled amounts of pesticides accumulate in ground vegetables.
There are technologies that are intermediate between bogey hydroponics and blessed soil. They still allow you to achieve the appearance of taste in the sold vegetables. This is due to the addition of peat and real soil to the liquid solution with which the plants are fed. And finally, a compromise. A “mobile bed” costs 3 times more than hydroponics, its maintenance is also 30% more expensive, but the costs are worth it. Because the resulting product tastes almost the same as that grown in natural soil.
The next question that causes a lot of controversy: glass or polyethylene? The disadvantages of a glazed greenhouse: it passes a lot of heat - uneconomical. If you live in a region where insolation is strong, a plant burn is possible, since the light does not scatter, but concentrates. If you really make a glass greenhouse, then you need to know: 3 or 4 mm glass will not work. For the greenhouse you need tempered technical glass with a thickness of 6 mm. It is sold here in many places, the price range is from 800 to 1500 rubles per linear meter.
Let's go back to the polyethylene. Polyethylene also has disadvantages: where there is little sun, respectively, polyethylene further impedes its access to plants. In addition to polyethylene, there are also options: acrylic and polycarbonate, which eliminate all the disadvantages of polyethylene. You can see how the majority of home-made greenhouses cost us - many, if not the vast majority, are made of old double-glazed windows. But this is not a business - no one calculates losses on a personal household plots, especially if electricity is also being stolen. All this can not afford a businessman.
greenhouse business: how to save?
On heating the greenhouse you can still save quite legally. Many entrepreneurs heat their greenhouses with wood stoves. Experts advise, for example, Kuznetsov's bell-type furnace.
So, to summarize: in order to successfully compete in the domestic greenhouse business, it is profitable to grow greens. In addition, you need to remember - the greenhouse business is seasonal in nature - when seasonal ground vegetables come in, the business freezes.
Nazarenko Elena
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