November 27 2007, 12:25

"Ledovo" to increase champignon production almost 40% in 2007

"Ledovo" group of companies will increase champignon production 38.9% this year, Yarmarka.net informs.

The company informs that champignon production will reach 2,500 tons in 2007 comparing to 1,800 tons in 2006.

In future, the growth rates may increase 25% more, because the company started applying new technology of champignon cultivation. In November, "Ledovo" agri-complex started using new compost purchased in Lithuania. As a result, the cycle of mushroom production reduces on one week, and the yield per one sq. meter increases up to 35 kg (compare to 26 kg of yield of the old technology).

According to Nadezhda Kopytina, the President of "Ledovo", the first harvest, grown due to new technology, will ripen in December.

According to the data of the company, Russians consume in average 500,000 tons of mushrooms. The mast part of this volume is wild mushrooms. At the same time, 11,900 tons of mushrooms are annually grown in greenhouses - 81,178 tons of this amount are champignons. Taking into account the imports, Russia consumes around 42,000 tons of cultivated mushrooms. The volume of imports amounts to around 80%.The main mushroom importers to Russia are Poland, Holland, Belgium, and China.

"Ledovo" group of companies is one of the leading producers of seafood and champignons in Russian Federation. The company supplies its products to Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Ukraine and Lithuania. In 2006 the turnover of the group was almost RUR 508 mln., the net profit - around RUR 41 mln., the production volume was more than 5,500 tons.

Mrs. Kopytina earlier informed that the company's turnover may reach RUR 1 billion this year.

The processing capacities of the group are located in Moscowskaya region (Ledovo settlement), and also in Svetliy city in Kaliningradskaya region.