In December 2014, in the industrial city of Volzhsky in the Volgograd region, the greenhouse Ovoschevod opened the first 5 hectares of its new ultramodern complex Botanika. Now, thanks to photoculture technology, Volgograd growers can produce vegetables in the winter time too.
To present day, cucumbers have been successfully grown in the new greenhouses, and the company has concluded the first year of work under the Botanika brand. Just recently, the greenhouses exceeded planned production and shipped a significant amount of Botanika produce abroad - so far this year 10,000 tons of vegetables have been shipped; an increase of about 35% compared to the same period last year. General director of Ovoschevod Yury Sudarev puts the success of this down to the professionalism of the business, which is the heir to traditions dating back to the Soviet era greenhouse Ovoschevod. Sudarev explains that Botanika has already almost fully covered the regional demand for cucumbers in the winter period and the product quality is higher than that of the imported equivalent.
The geography of the supply of Botanika branded cucumbers and tomatoes is wide- from Siberia, the Urals, to Moscow and St Petersburg. Successful promotion of the brand in the country’s retail chains contributed to the opening of a logistics center also in December 2014, in which the vegetables are packed in accordance with the weight and size, labelled and prepared for shipping. The new greenhouse complex is also equipped with its own gas piston power plant, which produces cheap electricity for the business, as well as heat and carbon dioxide. The plant does not only produce electricity for the company but also returns its oversupply to the city’s network. In 2016-2017 the company plans to open another 15 hectares of new greenhouses that will further substantially increase production.
In 2004, the Ovoschevod agriculture complex was in decline and subsequently bought by the Volgograd group of companies Radezh. In 2006, they converted the old Soviet greenhouses, and in 2007 built 5.5 hectares of greenhouses; the equipment for which was purchased in Holland. In 2014, Radezh launched the new investment project Botanika worth close to €26 million. As a result of its implementation, the total area of the greenhouses increased from 15.7 hectares to 34 hectares, and the volume of production from 7,000 tonnes to 20,000 tonnes. It also almost doubled the amount of jobs.
