One of Russia’s top retailers, Magnit, plans to increase vegetable production in its greenhouse complexes by 30% in 2020, while also being set on increasing direct purchases from Russian producers by 80%, Potato System reports.
According to the company, this will help reduce the retail chain’s dependence on imported products.
In 2020, Magnit plans to launch the first phase of the greenhouse complex in the Krasnodar Territory, where they will grow tomatoes and cucumbers for delivery to network stores. As noted, the opening of such a complex will allow the company to increase its own production of tomatoes by almost 70% and cucumbers by 20%.
Products from the greenhouse complexes of the Magnit distribution network are sold under the brand name “Magnet Freshness”.
Magnit added that the company had already agreed with 40 Russian agro-industrial enterprises and farms to purchase about 170,000 tons of products, primarily tomatoes, cucumbers, apples, onions, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, in the first half of the year. According to the company, the volume of purchases this year is more than the figure for the same period last year by more than 80%.
Magnit said in February it would open fewer stores this year and cut back on spending in a bid to improve efficiency after its net income more than halved in the fourth quarter.
Magnit, whose low-cost shops have been struggling to compete with market leader X5 in a weak economic environment, said it planned to open about 1,300 stores on a net basis in 2020, down from 2,377 in 2019.
