Raspberry cultivation as a business: profitability, business plan

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Can raspberry cultivation be considered as an attractive business for its profitability? How to calculate the payback for this entrepreneurship, how to assess your capabilities and prospects? Is it really worth doing this kind of work? Some consider it doubtful, others call it unpromising. There is another opinion: growing raspberries is profitable, reasonable, provides excellent opportunities and is a successful business format. Let's take a closer look.

From the beginning

First you need to understand the peculiarities of working with this plant, and then consider growing raspberries as a business. The profitability of this business is largely determined by the right approach, a good choice of variety, taking into account climaticzone features.

Before we get into the technical aspects, let's take a look at the general statistics collected from entrepreneurs involved in this area. They will help analyze how wise it is to spend your time and energy working with raspberries. So what's the ROI? Growing raspberries as a business is a rather labor-intensive area. It starts with considerable investments, requires the hiring of workers. If a person wants to make a big profit in the first season, he does not have to count on much. The average level of earnings as the farm develops is 35-40%.

About the numbers in more detail

Is it possible to bite off your piece of the pie with high profitability? Growing raspberries as a business begins with planting on a farm. You can count on the return on investment on average in a three-year period. This time is enough to master the rules of cultivation, the features of caring for the plant. In three years, the entrepreneur gets a stable base of buyers, opens his point of sale and gets reliable distributor contacts.

Let's imagine that a potential entrepreneur has 20 acres of land at his disposal. On this site, you can plant 2.4 thousand bushes, if there are three hundred plants in one row, the length of each row will be 0.2 km. In total, it will turn out to make eight such rows. Row spacing dimensions are 50 cm by 2.5 m. Some are afraid of insufficient profitability. Growing raspberries as a business in Russia is currently not as popular as in some other countries. But don't be too afraidafter all, the average yield of one plant is estimated at 2.5 kg, that is, six tons of berries can be removed from the site. On average, wholesale buyers pay 200 rubles per kilogram of the product, and retail can be sold for 300 rubles / kg. Accordingly, the average profit is estimated at 1.2-1.8 million. Is it worth the effort, counting on such profitability? Growing raspberries as a business in Russia is still relatively uncommon, but many are convinced that the reason for this is the low awareness of the population about the prospects for such entrepreneurship. So, let's look at its technical aspects.

About varieties

Without knowing about the varieties of the plant, one cannot count on a good profitability of growing raspberries as a business. A raspberry business especially needs a plan, and all the important conditions for a businessman's activity must be entered into it. This is especially true if a person who has spent most of his life in the city wants to work in this area. You need to know that raspberries come in several varieties. The most juicy, fragrant, tasty is summer. It peaks in just two years, but gets sick easily, freezes quickly, and often harbors pests.

When compiling a business plan, you need to decide in favor of a particular variety or several. Among the summer ones, the most attractive are “octavia”, “lyashka”. Most often planted "lyashka". She quickly sings, and the bushes are literally strewn with berries in season. This is a relatively resistant variety that can survive frost down to -30 degrees. Berries are quite easy to transport, they are quite firm and juicy. Dimensions of one fruit - up to 4 cm. Weightcan reach a gram. The yield of bushes is high, about two hundred tons can be harvested per hectare. True, the buds of a plant can freeze slightly in the cold season. In addition, you need to constantly process the shrub from pests, fungi.

Octavia

When learning how to start a raspberry growing business from scratch, it is worth taking a closer look at this variety - some beginners consider it the best start. This is a promising variety of berries. There are quite a few fruits of just such a shrub on the market. Its good survival rate is noted in a relatively warm climate, but the plant will not withstand frosts stronger than -30. The fruits of the shrub are quite easy to transport. "Octavia" is highly resistant to viruses, fungal infection.

The berries of this shrub are beautiful, smooth, tasty. The weight of one piece reaches 8 g. Wind and rain do not lead to shedding of the crop. True, propagating shrubs is quite difficult. This problem is considered the main disadvantage of the bush.

Repair Raspberry

Very often consider the possibility of planting this particular variety, since it bears fruit twice a year. The first crop is harvested in the summer season, the second - in the fall. Such raspberries perfectly tolerate cold and harsh climatic conditions. She is not afraid of pests. The plant rarely gets sick. There is no need to treat the bush with special preparations, which means that the resulting crop will be extremely clean and safe - and such berries traditionally cost more.

Not without drawbacks, which includebusiness plan. In particular, the bush is not easy to propagate. It is difficult to cut. The plant is demanding on top dressing, needs regular addition of additional nutrients. As a result, the level of costs for providing a plantation is above average, but the taste and aroma of berries are not as pleasant as those of the species described above. Among the varieties, "Polka", "Zyugan" and "Joan G" are especially in demand.

Is it worth the effort?

Is it worth it to delve into the specifics of compiling and evaluating business plans, the profitability of growing raspberries as a business? Many of our compatriots believe that this is justified only to a small extent, but in the European powers, entrepreneurs have a different opinion. Raspberry as an object of entrepreneurship provides a huge number of advantages. Just the fact that the region is still poorly developed in our country gives newcomers excellent chances. The niche has not yet been filled, the demand is great, so it will be possible to find a buyer without difficulty. For a fresh harvest of any berries, the demand is high. Accordingly, raspberries become doubly profitable.

As experienced people in this matter note, it is quite easy and simple to start a business. Landing is not particularly difficult. You need to have a plot, a car for its preparation, seedlings. The landing itself can be done even with your own hands. You can attract labor, which will be quite cheap. The harvest from the resulting plot can be harvested in the summer, and in some cases also in the fall. Caring for a plantation is quite simple. If it is not possible to sell the entire crop before the loss of presentation, the remains can be processed - frozen, canned. Such a product is also in demand by buyers.

Where to stop?

To learn from your own experience about the maximum profitability of the raspberry growing business, you need to responsibly choose the right variety. First you need to plant several varieties at once. By the time of harvest, the entrepreneur compares how much he harvests from each zone of his plantation. Based on the results of the winter, it is estimated how high the percentage of survival for the sites is. Based on this, they determine which plants to continue working with. It is impossible to give universal data on profitability that would describe all cases - the influence of climate is too strong.

The above are the average payback and profitability within 40%. You can count on these by choosing the appropriate vegetation option. Most often, remontant varieties are planted.

About the nuances

Without knowing anything about the technical aspects of working with shrubs, one cannot count on a good profitability of growing raspberries as a business. The technology of work depends on the chosen variety, but there are general recommendations. So, it is necessary to choose the most light area. The more sun hits the shrub, the better the berries will sing. The second important aspect is water supply. The shrub should receive a lot of liquid. If the rains are weak, you need to regularly irrigate the plantation.

Watering is not the only procedure that raspberries need. Occasionallythe bush needs to be fed. Use organic fertilizers. Most often, a potassium-phosphorus mixture is chosen.

Raspberries need to be trimmed regularly. It is desirable to hold the event in March, November. When pruning, no more than five of the strongest shoots are left, removing all others.

Technical aspects

When figuring out how to open a raspberry growing business, you should take a closer look at the starting conditions. Having a plot and seedlings available, you can start planting them, but do not forget that soon you will need to take care of the crop. The soil needs to be mulched regularly. But the ground should be light. If the land does not meet the requirements, raspberries grow poorly. It is recommended to assess what the land is like before landing. The best is light sandy. There is a soil too heavy, clayey, you need to add the necessary sand here or choose another zone. The best acidity level for raspberries is 5, 8-6, 2 units.

Equipment and workers

Today you can find very few reviews devoted to technology, profitability, growing raspberries. As a business, the cultivation of this shrub is considered by a few, even fewer by those who started this business in reality. Mostly in their responses, entrepreneurs point to the relative ease of work, the presence of rare difficulties that force them to work hard at times, and also talk about good profits. From these responses, it is clear that good profits are made by those who implement efficient harvesting methods. You will need a cultivator to quickly cultivate the land, a berry harvester, a refrigerator and a drying chamber. In total, this technique will cost 200 thousand rubles (or a little less).

In order for the profitability of the business of growing raspberries in greenhouses and open spaces to be large, you need to provide enough workers. The larger the territory, the more people will have to be hired. One or two hectares will require one agronomist, one combine driver, up to three laborers. Since constant care of the plants is necessary, it is very important to schedule responsibly. The average monthly salary of an agronomist is 35,000 rubles, a driver can be paid 5,000 less, and laborers receive about 25,000 rubles. When compiling a business plan, it is imperative to enter these figures into it.

Collecting, storing and highlights

In order not to lose the crop, you need to harvest it correctly - the profitability of the whole business largely depends on meeting the deadlines. Berries are harvested when dry. It is necessary to carefully remove each fruit from the receptacle. The berries are placed in a perfectly dry container. Water quickly makes them unusable, so you can’t wash raspberries - only before a meal.

Raspberries are stored at the top of the refrigerator, away from the freezer, away from any other food. To preserve the maximum of vitamins, you can dry the berries. The demand for dried raspberries is quite high. If it was not possible to sell part of the harvested crop, jam is made from it or berries are frozen.

Rulesand temperature

To keep the berries as long as possible, you need to pick them ripe, but not overripe. Only he althy berries are taken, and immediately after collection they are cooled. It is advisable to use modified packaging - so the shelf life will increase. Frozen berries are stored in paper bags, thin plastic. Quick freezing keeps fruits fresh for up to a year. To do this, the freshly harvested crop is placed in a chamber where the temperature does not exceed 20 degrees below zero, it can reach -35 degrees. After freezing, the berries are moved to a warmer part of the freezer.