Russia: Sugar beet - areas, harvests and yields in 2001-2019.

Business concept

The raw crop is used to produce sugar and molasses, and the residue is used to make silage. An additional advantage of agribusiness is the ability of beets to enrich the soil with valuable elements. If you harvest beets in the fall and plant potatoes in the same field in the spring, the latter’s harvest will be much richer.

Farmers supply root crops to sugar factories or feed mills.

If you can reach an agreement with such an enterprise, then cultivating sugar beets will be extremely profitable. A large producer will take the entire harvest at a good price.

Otherwise, the harvest will have to be sold to resellers with less profit. But selling root crops at retail is not an option. Therefore, you should look for potential partners among the owners of processing enterprises, possibly in other cities. But remember: with remote collaboration, transportation costs will increase.

Botanical description of table beet

It may come as a surprise to many gardeners, but table beets are by no means an independent species. A species is an evolutionarily established set of individuals characterized by a single..., but only a variety of the species “common beet”. That is, table beet, sugar beet, and fodder beet are all the same species. Species is an evolutionarily established set of individuals, characterized by a single ... plant, included in the botanical genus Beet.

Beetroot of all varieties has a taproot, dense, very fleshy root crop that protrudes slightly above the surface of the ground. It is this root crop that is the main product in the artificial cultivation of red beets.

Being a biennial plant, in the first year beets form a large root and several large leaves. In the second year (occasionally towards the autumn of the first), an erect stem covered with leaves grows from the center of the leaf rosette, 50 to 125 cm high. In the axils of the uppermost leaves on this stem, small pale flowers are formed, grouped into complex spikes. Cross-pollination is carried out by small insects. Subsequently, these spikelets turn into inflorescences containing a small number of complex-shaped seeds.

As for the sweet beet itself, only a few of its differences from other varieties need to be noted. Firstly, table beets are distinguished by the rich burgundy color of their leafy stems and roots (especially the pulp and juice, since the outer skin of many varieties is red-brown or gray-brown). Secondly, the average weight of the root crop is relatively small and ranges from 0.3 to 1 kg. Thirdly, in most varieties the root crop does not have a rod-shaped (inverted cone) shape, but a spherical-flattened one. Finally, only table beets are used for human food in their original form, since they have a delicate sweetish taste.

What will be required for implementation?

First of all, a large plot of land. The profitability of agribusiness depends on its size: the larger, the higher. This crop is not picky about the soil composition, but it must be taken into account when sowing. Thus, light sandy soils require planting to a depth of 2 cm; on loams, seeds need to be buried 5 cm. The distance between rows is from 40 cm.

If it is impossible to purchase land, rent it. The same applies to warehouses and agricultural machinery. Few people can shell out 7-8 million to purchase it at the start of a business.

Choose seeds that are highly productive, but not the most expensive. They must be purchased annually to avoid degeneration.

Give preference to high-sugar varieties that are suitable for growing in your area.

Helpers will also be needed. Since beets are grown only in rural areas in large fields, it is not difficult to find workers. Employment in the countryside is not very good, and villagers take any part-time job.

There is no need to spend money on advertising. A business card website is enough. As with most types of agribusiness, personal agreements are everything.

Step-by-step launch instructions

When drawing up a business plan, you need to take into account start-up expenses and possible expenses in case of crop failure and damage to the collected root crops. Write down two scenarios for the development of events - ideal and negative. Further steps include preparation for agricultural work and its implementation:

1. Officialize agribusiness. Since planting beets on one hectare of land is unprofitable, peasant farming will not be suitable. It is necessary to open an individual entrepreneur or LLC with the taxation regime of the Unified State Tax System. Suitable - OKVED 01.13.51. Please note: “tax holidays” and other benefits are possible for individual entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector.
2. Obtain a phytosanitary permit (expert opinion) from the sanitary inspectorate.
3. Rent land, a warehouse with two rooms (for seeds and for root crops) and agricultural equipment.
4. Purchase seed, fertilizers and pest control medications.
5. Prepare the field (the soil should be loose) and sow. Five days after this, harrow so that oxygen penetrates deep into the soil. The beets will sprout abundantly. They need to be thinned out, removing weak shoots. In hot weather, generous watering is needed - four times a month. In September, water only once - just before harvesting. Simultaneously with summer watering, plants are fed with phosphorus-potassium fertilizers. Also, the field must be treated at least twice with safe anti-pest preparations.
6. Harvest the harvest. Beets are harvested in mid-September. You need to rent modern cleaning equipment. She removes root vegetables from the ground gently, without damage. If the beet skin is scratched, it will quickly rot.

After harvesting, the crop is dried directly on the field. If it rains, then under a canopy. Then the root crops are sorted, packaged and delivered to the buyer.

Soil characteristics and temperature conditions for growing table beets

Beets prefer fertile, well-loosened soils with neutral acidity. Classic chernozems, as well as gray podzolized soils, are optimal for this crop. In addition, a good harvest can be grown on carefully cultivated lowland peatlands.

Red beetroot is a fairly cold-resistant plant. Its seeds are capable of sprouting even at temperatures of about 4-5 °C. Under such temperature conditions, seedlings break through to the surface in about 22-23 days. But this does not mean that such low temperatures are preferable for her. If you raise the temperature to 10 ° C, germination occurs 2-3 days earlier, and at 25 ° C and other equal conditions, seedlings can be observed in less than a week - only on the fifth or sixth day. But an increase in temperature above this value is no longer desirable, since it has a detrimental effect on the condition of seeds and seedlings.

During the initial period of plant formation (from the emergence of seedlings to the start of root formation processes), a moderate temperature of 15–18 °C is preferable. In the event of frosts during this period of seedling development, a significant part of the crops or even all shoots die.

After the young vegetable beet forms four to six leaves, it becomes much more resistant to possible cold snaps. But if the frosts are prolonged, this will lead to a decrease in the rate of further development of the root crop and the appearance of a significantly larger number of flowering stems.

In addition to spring frosts, you should also be careful about autumn frosts if the beet crop has not yet been harvested. Root crops will survive a short-term cold snap of up to 2-3 °C relatively painlessly, but if the cold intensifies or drags on, this will have an extremely negative impact on the condition of the entire plant. Prolonged autumn frosts are especially dangerous for those varieties of table beets in which a significant part of the root crop is located above the ground surface.

Financial calculations

Sugar beets have high yields, and their cultivation provides good profits. But you need to carefully analyze all possible expenses to avoid unnecessary expenses.

Starting capital and monthly expenses

The initial investment directly depends on the area sown. Let's consider the minimum option - 20 hectares. Renting such a plot of land will cost 50,000 rubles per year.

What else will affect the amount of starting capital:

The total amount of starting financial investments is 350,000 rubles.

It is difficult to talk about monthly expenses, since they vary throughout the ripening of the crop. On average, 30,000 rubles are budgeted for various expenses. It will take five months to prepare the field, grow and harvest the crop. In total, you still have to spend 150,000 rubles.

How much can you earn and payback period

The minimum revenue after selling beets per hectare with an average yield of 400 centners per hectare is about 280,000 rubles (with wholesale sales at 7 rubles per kilo). A field of 20 hectares yields 5,600,000 rubles.

Ideally, the profit without taxes will be 5,100,000 rubles (subtract the starting investments and monthly expenses). But this is only if the entire harvest is preserved and can be quickly sold. However, even with half the losses, the profit is very tasty.

Advantages of agribusiness and possible risks

The main advantage of agricultural activities is high profitability with low investments.

Losses can be reduced by opening a small production of fodder and growing accompanying crops on leased lands through crop rotation.

To succeed in the field of growing sugar beets, you will need not only knowledge of agricultural technology, but also an entrepreneurial spirit. After all, profit and possible losses depend on the speed of crop sales.

Marketing strategy and sales organization

The main mistake of producers of open-ground vegetables is that immediately after harvesting, their sale begins. Sometimes it comes straight from the field, unwashed and unselected, but quickly and a lot at once.

Such sales are impractical, since vegetables in this form are much cheaper than they can later be found in retail markets or in supermarket chains. Having at your disposal a vegetable storage facility, equipment for packing and washing beets, the profitability of the enterprise will increase several times.

A farm without a technological infrastructure for beet storage will not meet the needs of attractive clients – retail chains. Usually, starting in April, the beet market is filled with imports precisely for this reason, and accordingly, the price rises sharply.

Retail chains are profitable clients for the sale of beets from a profitability point of view. But the requirements of network operators include not only a high volume of supplies, but also stability throughout the year. To do this, it is necessary to organize a full cycle production. Namely, cultivation, processing, packaging and storage at our own facilities.

Without such an organization, the sale of table beets is organized immediately after harvesting, starting in September. These are wholesale markets, medical and educational institutions, and other public catering establishments.