OREANDA-NEWS According to the results of last year, more than 22 thousand tons of wild plants were harvested in Russia — these are nuts, berries and mushrooms. This result was a record in the history of calculations, writes Rossiyskaya Gazeta with reference to Roslesinforga data.

The head of the state organization Pavel Chashchin noted that in 2022 the increase in the collection was 14 percent, and in 2021 - 48 percent. Most of the wild plants are harvested in Siberia and the Far East — 17.1 thousand tons and 4.6 thousand, respectively.

A feature of last season was a sharp increase in the result for nuts (plus 16 percent) and mushrooms (plus 4.7 percent), but berry picking decreased by 60 percent. According to Chashchin, the trend is related to weather conditions — hot or cool summers. In turn, the head of the association "Wild Plants" Alexander Deev noted that a smaller volume of berries is associated with a decrease in export demand. Buyers from Europe did not arrive in 2022, so there was no one to sell the goods.

According to Deev, against the background of sanctions, many entrepreneurs have broken business models. Restrictions forced to change the existing sales markets, which led to losses. In addition, wholesale prices in Russia turned out to be much lower than usual, which did not allow to compensate for the costs.

On the eve of March 16, at the congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), President Vladimir Putin said that the Russian harvest in 2022 exceeds the European one, and if the EU wanted to replace lettuce with turnips, then it will have to be bought in Russia.