Obviously, the greenhouse as a business is becoming more attractive today for entrepreneurs. Its products are in demand.
Statistics from the Moscow Research Institute of Nutrition claims that the average resident of the country should consume 87.6 kg of vegetables per year. Of these, approximately 13 kg are grown in greenhouses.
According to the report of the same research institute, the share of vegetables in the general diet should be increased by 30%. The experience of many countries testifies to the growing component of greenhouse production in their harvest. This is promising.
Currently, the share of production of Russian greenhouses per average inhabitant is only 4 kg. Of course, this is not enough. The remaining 9 kg is Dutch strawberries, Israeli greens, Iranian cucumbers, Turkish tomatoes. The agro-industrial complex is tasked to fully provide the population of Russia with greenhouse vegetables of domestic production.
Governmental support
The turning point of the situation seems to have come. Unfortunately, this business has been "choked" for more than twenty years. The needs of this business have not been previously heard by society in the form of energy suppliers operating through discriminatory quotas.
The necessary adjustments were made by the Russian state program for the development of agriculture in 2013–2020 (Government Decision No. 717 of July 14, 2012). Increasingly, entrepreneurs are interested in the question - where to start a greenhouse business?
Where should greenhouses be built?
Greenhouse management is critical of the geography of this type of agriculture. If, for example, in the same Spain, a greenhouse can be built wherever you want, then, unfortunately, Russia is characterized by the prevailing zoning in the area of increased risk to agriculture.
Severe winters, insufficient sunshine, unstable summers - these factors for businesses in closed soil mean increased energy costs. Greenhouse vegetables require maintaining the thermal regime of their germination and cultivation. At the same time, the heating of these agricultural facilities should function adequately to external temperature differences.
The business plan of the greenhouse business should minimize energy consumption, since they make up at least 90% of the total costs of greenhouses. Therefore, perhaps, the reproaches of Russian farmers to the energy sector are justified because of the insufficiently balanced energy prices throughout the entire national economic complex. So far, minimizing costs, and hence the maximum profitability of the greenhouse business, is possible only in the southern regions of the Russian Federation.
Future sales planning
The entrepreneur, preliminary assessing whether the greenhouse business is beneficial, monitors the important factor of the availability of water supply, gas and electricity for heating and lighting. In addition, a certain role belongs to minimizing transport costs. Therefore, the business on the closed ground is especially in demand near the cities with a population of over one million.
Priority are beneficial for entrepreneurs established direct deliveries of freshly grown products to nearby supermarket chains. At the same time, the maximum profitability of the greenhouse business is achieved and there are virtually no product losses that occur during longer delivery.
However, even in the case of significant transport costs, the costs of transporting vegetables grown in Russia from south to north are much lower than the estimated energy costs if the greenhouses in which these fruits were grown were in the northern regions.
Specialization
Beginning entrepreneurs should not get sprayed, picking up a "bouquet" of various greenhouse crops for cultivation. In modern entrepreneurship in closed soil, high productivity is achieved only with a narrow specialization. This idea is confirmed by the many years of experience of the Dutch, recognized leaders in the issue we are discussing. Those say that specialization in two cultures is already an excess.
In a word, a greenhouse as a business is created on the basis of sanity and sober calculation. When you enter it, initiative is not welcome. First, the market is investigated, which greenhouse culture is most in demand. Useful area is planned in advance, reasonable yield parameters are laid (greenhouse agriculture for the year implies 3–6 crops).
What is more profitable to grow?
However, amateur monitoring is not enough, agronomic knowledge is important. One way or another, before entering the agribusiness on closed ground, you will have to hire a technologist with the knowledge of an agronomist. It is with him that SP clarifies the question: what is more profitable to grow in greenhouses? Even with the initial specialization in a certain culture, the agronomist will tell you the desired variety.
Here are some recommendations to entrepreneurs on their choice of specialization. If you plan to work closely with wholesalers, then there is a direct benefit to produce tomatoes - a crop that has been stored for a relatively long time. Greens (parsley, celery, lettuce, dill) are beneficial when trading an entrepreneur directly with retail. Retail is also interested in “greenhouse” radishes, strawberries, seedlings (in spring). On direct contracts with restaurant owners, salad cultivation can be based.
In a word, for private entrepreneurs it is important to understand at the initial stage what is profitable to grow in a greenhouse for sale.
Harvest Planning and Business Parameters
We recommend that you decide on the purchasers of your future products before investing in the greenhouse business. We need firm agreements, reliable customers. Priority should be given, as we have already mentioned, to large chain supermarkets.
Then, by priority, you should look for opportunities in wholesale. And only then - in the retail. Therefore, the answer to the question of where to start a greenhouse business will be your agreement with large guaranteed customers. The sales system should in principle be pre-planned.
To understand how the greenhouse works as a business, imagine a simple calculation. First you have to make an investment project. The very first step for an entrepreneur should be to acquire a project. Thus, the entrepreneur determines the preparation of the territory, the purchase of equipment, its installation, the purchase of planting materials, links the maturation cycle, the timing of product sales with cash flows.
The main guidelines for you should be, on the one hand, the maximum possible profit (which you should strive for), and on the other, the minimum profit that preserves the prospects for business development
Purchased Greenhouses
Consider a typical business plan of a greenhouse business, built on an industrial basis. It is standard, therefore it is widely in demand. A land plot of 1 ha under greenhouses can be bought for about 100 thousand rubles.
Engineering soil preparation is being carried out. SP purchase standard sections industrial greenhouses. More often polycarbonate is a coating, less often - glass.
The section of such a prefabricated structure has the following parameters: width - 6 m, length - 4 m, height - 3.3 m. It costs 110 thousand rubles. How to roughly estimate the cost of significantly longer greenhouses? It is believed that with an increase in length, every 2 linear meters will cost 30 thousand rubles.Sections are set in rows, from east to west.
Heating and watering
The most rational heating system is air (with the supply of heated air through special openings in the ducts from the heat generators).
The preferred watering system is drip. The costs for it are small - several thousand rubles for the supply hoses. Necessarily purchased greenhouse lighting systems, fertilizers, chemicals. A warehouse and room for inventory should also be equipped.
Benefits and Costs
Is a greenhouse business built using purchased prefabricated greenhouses beneficial? Only with a well-designed business plan and strict adherence to modern technologies. Investments in the greenhouse complex with a useful area of 1 hectare will amount to about $ 30-35 thousand. In current costs, about 90% will be gas and electricity.
The annual salary of the manager, agronomist and 10 workers will be approximately $ 55-60 thousand. With the proper efficiency of the greenhouse, the profitability of the business is 15%. Such greenhouse technologies provide a return on investment in it for 3-4 years.
Briefly about hydroponics
The most cost-effective technology is hydroponics. The cycle of growing vegetables on it is three weeks. Harvest from one hectare with this technology in 1 day - up to 3 tons of vegetables. Housekeeping in a household greenhouse complex is usually done by the family living in the house. If hired workers are involved, then 1-2 people, and then for planting or harvesting (the most labor-intensive period).
It should be noted, in particular, that the greenhouse business based on hydroponics is more suitable for growing flowers, because the taste of vegetables will be significantly inferior to garden vegetables. In this case, consumers often complain about the “plastic” taste of the product. However, the greens "pass" with a bang.
Economy version of the greenhouse business
If the funds for the initial investment are still limited, your own site in front of the house may become a “launching pad” for you.
In this case, greenhouses are usually built on their own: frame - 2.5 m in width - and single-pitch, recessed into the ground.
Consider their specialization in cucumbers. This crop, unlike tomatoes, does not require ventilation, which simplifies cultivation. The most economical option - greenhouses, recessed into the ground (above the surface - only 1 m, outwardly it resembles a greenhouse). The entrance to the greenhouse is sloping, as in a cellar. The frame is made of steel wire, on top is a plastic film.
At the edges of the greenhouse, heating is being laid - two pipes fed from a home boiler. Watering frequently, cucumbers love water. Such structures are erected in an east-west direction along the entire length of the site. Greenhouse technologies, as we see, in the case of a household economy come from maximum profitability.
Maintaining the temperature regime in home gardens
It is important to observe the temperature regime. At a temperature of 25 aboutWith cucumbers sprout in 3 days if 18 aboutC - in a week. Further, 18 will be suitable for germination aboutC, but not less, since at temperatures below 14 aboutWith the growth of cucumbers generally stops. The problem occurs when the temperature drops outside the window are significant. What to do then? The answer is simple. In greenhouses, instrumentation should function. As an option, you can install a relay alarm with an audio signal in the house. Then, according to the "Alarm" signal, the temperature of the home boiler should be increased.
If the owners do not want to use a home boiler for heating home gardens, an alternative is possible - an oven for greenhouses. Usually this is a small economical stove-potbelly stove of simple design, designed for 20 hours of operation without supervision, insensitive to the type of fuel. It is desirable in its design to provide a chimney, gas lock, ash box, stove door. Heated in greenhouses with peat crumbs or sawdust.
Conclusion
The recently adopted Russian agricultural development program has already contributed to the growth of the crop of vegetables on closed ground: in 2013, the growth rate was 6.7%.It is significant that, compared with last year, the dynamics of yield growth in the Urals region amounted to 28%. The greenhouse business of the Volga region traditionally occupies a leading position - 184 thousand tons of vegetables and greens. In 2014, it is planned to get a crop of 720 thousand tons.
However, the Achilles heel of the greenhouse remains its gas and electricity consumption. Suppliers of these energy resources without taking into account the production characteristics of greenhouses in Russia set consumption quotas, penalizing for their excess.
By Decree No. 717, the Russian state took upon itself the compensation of 20% of the energy consumption of greenhouse entrepreneurs. It is planned to upgrade the existing technical complexes, increasing their traditional productivity by 2 times, as well as erect new ones. By 2014, the total area of greenhouses was increased from 2.6 to 3.0 thousand ha. And by 2020, the total area of greenhouses will be 4.7 thousand hectares, and the planned yield is 1720 thousand tons. The reserves are obvious, for comparison: the area under the closed ground of Spain is 52 thousand hectares.
The most important indicator of whether the greenhouse is effective as a business is the yield of vegetables per square meter. Due to the introduction of new technologies, it is expected to increase from 18.8 kg / m2 (average level for 2010) up to 36.8 kg / m2 - in 2020.
As you can see, the general macroeconomic situation demonstrates the growing attractiveness of this business for private entrepreneurs.
Right up to tears it is insulting from the attitude to our people.