Russia imports apple trees, instead of fruit

Moscow, April 7: It’s just not apples, but the whole tree that Russia is importing to wean its citizens off foreign food. The apple trees growing in Krasnodar near the Black Sea, where a Soviet- era orchard once flourished is proof of this. Most of the trees are from Italy.

Russia is the world’s largest apple importer because local varieties spoil faster than those grown in Europe or China and shoppers often prefer the taste of imported fruit. When farm operator AFG National Group sought to upgrade supplies in 2015, rather than use domestic crops, the company shipped in 143,000 trees from fields 3,000 km away. It’s new orchard near the Caucasus Mountains will produce about 8,000 metric tons of Gala, Red Delicious and Granny Smith apples this year.

“Deciding to use the latest technology in planting orchards, we realised that, unfortunately, national research in this area lags behind the leading European and global trends,” said Oleg Ryanov, who runs the orchard unit at AFG, which until the apple investment in Krasnodar was growing rice on 70,000 hectares ( 173,000 acres) in southern Russia. “From the very start, we took a cue from European countries.”

Increasingly, Russia is acquiring equipment and know- how from outside the country to expand agricultural output. Over the past decade, that strategy helped to create an exporting juggernaut for major crops like wheat and barley. But consumers still rely on foreign dairy, fruits and vegetables.