Where can you grow tomatoes in the tundra? The short answer is you can’t. Due to Russia’s chilly climate it runs a massive tomato deficit, but that is starting to change as a Japanese company begins the second phase of a plan to build giant greenhouses in Yakutia. 

Hokkaido Corporation signed a cooperation agreement on July 27 to began building the second stage of the Sayuri greenhouse complex in Yakutia.

"Today, we have signed an agreement with the Hokkaido Corporation on construction of the second part of the Sayuri greenhouse complex," Sayuri director Dmitry Zakharov told TASS. "By late 2019, the greenhouses will cover 3.2 hectares and we shall thus satisfy 40% of demand in Yakutsk and the neighbouring towns."

The greenhouse will grow a variety of crops, but cucumbers and tomatoes, much loved by Russians, are the most important ones. Currently these products have been grown in the European part of Russia and literally shipped half way round the world to consumers in Yakutia, where it is winter almost 11 months of the year.

Russia produces very few tomatoes of its own, depending on Turkey for the bulk of its needs. But Turkish tomatoes are current still subject to Russian sanctions imposed following the downing of a Russian bomber on the Turkish-Syrian border in November 2014. Despite the rapid warming of relations, the ban on tomato imports has yet to be lifted.

Russia will not cancel its ban on imports of Turkish tomatoes for at least a few years, Russian Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachev said on June 21. "We may authorise [the import of tomatoes from Turkey] at some time but definitely not in years ahead," Tkachev said.

Russia has been using the agricultural sanctions it imposed on Turkey and the EU to force the development of its own agricultural as part of its import substitution drive – and to good effect.

The greenhouse project was previously championed by leading privately owned Rosagro, however the company abandoned its plans to build three 100-football field sized greenhouses when it failed to get government subsidies for the project.

The first crops from the second stage of the Sayuri greenhouse complex are expected in the autumn of 2018.

All-in-all, the greenhouses are planned to produce 1,500 tonnes of cucumbers, 500 tonnes of tomatoes and 25 tonnes of herbs annually (Russians are crazy about dill too). The first products from the first phase went to shops in late 2016.

There are still many issues to resolve, the main one being the tomatoes produced by Sayuri have less nitrates, 17-20mg/kg, while the tomatoes brought from other parts of Russia contain up to 300mg/kg nitrates.

The investments for the second and third stages are estimated to be RUB1.2bn ($20mn). About 30% will come from the Far East Development Fund, and the rest from Japanese investors and debt.