New projects, staff shortages and low grain prices

General DIRECTOR of the Steppe agricultural holding Andrey Neduzhko:

- Last year, despite the rapid dynamics and difficult market conditions, the Steppe agricultural holding reached new records. Unaudited revenue at the end of the year exceeded 100 billion rubles, and the gross harvest at Steppe farms exceeded last year’s record figures by 8%, the total harvest volume at the end of 2023 amounted to over 2.1 million tons. All this was made possible thanks to efficient work a team of professionals, the widespread use of high-tech solutions in production and the constant improvement of work standards. 

One of the main achievements of 2023 for the company is the harvest of the first harvest of wheat of the Sistema variety, which was bred by specialists of the agricultural holding together with partners. The new variety demonstrated good yields and resistance to bad weather. On some Don farms, the harvest per hectare is more than 14 quintals higher than the average. With winter sowing for the 2024 harvest , the area for the new variety has been tripled. 

In the new year, Steppe will continue to develop the trend of import substitution. it is obvious that the demand for digital technologies will systematically grow in agriculture. Our agricultural holding is one of the leaders in digitalization in the Russian agricultural sector, and our tasks in this direction are the development and implementation of high-tech solutions to increase production efficiency and level out rising costs. In addition, digitalization contributes to the rejuvenation of the industry, making it more attractive to new specialists. An important strategic task for the agricultural holding in the new year will be to continue active work with youth and attract young professionals. 

Owner and CEO of the Lazarevskoye agricultural holding Kristina Romanovskaya:

- It’s worth starting with our IT startup “Lazarevskoye TECH”. We launched an innovative project for non-invasive weighing of animals together with Innopolis University and Sberbank. This technology will help the pig farm save about 50 million rubles. in year. 

I would also like to mention our seed production plant. The total investment in the project amounted to 805 million rubles. The plant will be the largest in the Central Federal District, its productivity is 10 tons/hour. 3 thousand hectares out of 25 thousand hectares on the farm are allocated for seed production. 

Our greatest emphasis is on modernizing business processes through the introduction of digital technologies. This applies to all areas and industries that we are involved in. We started with management accounting and agronomy. Now we will gradually digitize warehouses for pig breeding, cattle and processing. And due to the fact that now the whole world is moving online , we are also developing our marketing strategy to position the company in the information space.

As for the difficulties that occurred in 2023, I would like to note the staff shortage. There were problems before, too, but such a critical situation as now never arose. It is worth saying that despite the fact that we have tightened our belts, we have greatly increased salaries. The labor market is now literally in a fever, given that there is a shortage of personnel not only in agriculture. Our salaries have almost doubled over the past three years. This is simply a colossal burden on production costs. But we understand that people are the most valuable thing. And if there are employees, then there will be work , and if not, then everything else makes no sense at all. Therefore, we are not saving on people now, but, as I already said, salaries take up a colossal share of the cost.  

My key expectations and plans for 2024 are the stability of the company and maintenance of previous parameters. We will continue to optimize processes and, of course, work with losses, find different ways and alternative solutions to the issue by modernizing business processes and optimizing costs. 

Deputy Director of the Rodnoe agricultural enterprise (Tula region) Dmitry Inyutin:

- In 2023, the overall yield in our company increased, thanks to which, despite the decline in prices for crop products and especially grains, we maintained our turnover. In addition, we managed to get preferential loans, although we had to wait a little long for approval. 

In the coming year we plan to increase the area under cultivation, although we do not plan to introduce new crops into the crop rotation. We are also considering the possibility of investing in processing, but we will make this decision based on the results of the 2024 harvesting campaign.

Director for  IT and innovation of the exporting company Dostavka Morem holding Pavel Konev:

- For our company, a significant event in the past year was the expansion of our presence on high water: we sent ships from the four largest deep-water terminals of the Black Sea - NKHP, NZT, KSK in Novorossiysk and from the Taman grain terminal.

The second important event is the digitalization of the purchase of agricultural products. Delivery by Sea released its own application and opened auctions on the National Commodity Exchange. We also set up integration with the digital trader “Agroclub”. Over the last quarter of 2023, the share of digital channels in our purchases increased to 25%.

The third significant event is the development of financial lines. This year we started working with Alfa-Bank, Rosbank, Raiffeisenbank and now we cooperate with seven of the top 12 largest Russian financial institutions.

General Director of the Tambov Farms company Igor Polyakov: 

- Overall, 2023 was a good year for our company. Of the minuses, I would note the low prices for grain crops - wheat, barley, corn. We received negative profitability for them. Low grain prices were the main event of the year for us, which forced us to reconsider their share in production in 2024. We understand that this may be wrong, but we cannot work at a loss: we are responsible to a team of 200 people. 

At the same time, we grow a lot of potatoes and soybeans, and these crops supported our company’s profitability last year, so we will be reviewing crop rotation in their favor and reducing grain production. We have positive expectations for the coming year.