At first glance, it seems that everyone loves strawberries and organizing such a business is a great idea. And this is true, because what can you build a profitable business on if not food. But, before doing any business, you need to find out all its features - pros, cons and known problems (as well as, of course, ways to solve them).

Perhaps you should start your journey at home (for example, in bags using the Dutch method) - and if the room is warm, then too all year round you will receive fruits. Of course, growing strawberries at home will not be a million-dollar business, but rather additional income or hobby. But you can try different methods, varieties, and then move on to the greenhouse.

Why do you need a strawberry business?

Usually the strawberry picking season is in early summer - competition is strong and it is difficult to enter the market. During the rest of the year, if you find garden strawberries anywhere, they cost fabulous money.

So why not try to harness your entrepreneurial flair and start growing strawberries in a greenhouse all year round? This is such a high profitability! But don't think it will be easy! Strawberries are a proud berry, and they need a lot of attention. And to grow all year round you will need to create special conditions- but everything is possible if you pay attention to the issue (and not just read forums, blogs, social networks and watch videos about business ideas and motivation on the Internet).

Learn from the advice there, but choose only useful information. But information without practice is nothing!

Advantages and disadvantages of growing in a greenhouse

If you grow strawberries in a greenhouse all year round, you can get the following: competitive advantages:

• year-round fruitfulness of strawberries;
• high demand in the off season;
• a large number of wholesale buyers(remember winter and supermarkets?);
• When grown in open ground, the likelihood of the crop rotting/shrinking/deteriorating is higher than in a hydroponic greenhouse.
• extremely high profitability – payback in one season.

However, there are also difficulties and disadvantages:

• the need for artificial pollination of strawberries;
• 7-8 times more investment compared to growing in open ground not all year round.
• “broiler” increase in daylight hours is a big expense.
• strawberries will be slightly different from those grown in the village.

Your experience in working with soil in general and berries in particular is also very important. If your experience is minimal, but you still want to do everything yourself, it’s better to look for information, watch a video on YouTube, look through our resource or any other forum - collect information. You shouldn't step on the old rusty rake of other people's mistakes, right?

Primary costs

Buying seedlings

Strawberries are plants that reproduce by “whiskers” - healthy, beautiful and fertile plants from “whiskers” of the 1st and 2nd orders are suitable for your seedlings. When choosing, you should pay attention to the development and tortuosity of the root system of the sprout. An important point is the choice of the variety(s) you intend to grow. The best varieties are Glima, Cambridge, Elsanta, Volya, Kama, Red Capulet, Vigee or anything else.

Carefully study the information about these (or others that you have chosen) varieties, read forums, blogs, ask friends who grow strawberries in their country house or village. It might even be worth doing a little market research - buying different varieties of strawberries and asking different people from your friends, which ones do you like best - this way you will get the best and adequate ratios of one variety to another for your greenhouse.

Greenhouse construction

If you are going to grow strawberries in a greenhouse all year round, the kind you have probably seen many times in the countryside - it has a frame covered with plastic film - this is one of the cheapest options. Such greenhouses are scattered in abundance throughout land plots and are used not only for strawberries, but also for many other plants. However, remember that the film is a poor thermal insulator - if it freezes, the crop may suffer.

There is also an option to make a glass greenhouse - this option is more expensive, but it can be heated.

There are also more modern greenhouses made from polycarbonate materials - the most expensive of greenhouses, but they last longer, are more reliable and have many other comparative advantages.

When starting a business, you don’t have to take into account the costs of workers - you can work independently, but carefully evaluate your own free time and qualifications.

Dutch growing method

It will help you save on growing strawberries during the off-season, i.e. in winter. The Dutch method can be applied even at home, and it will also bring significant income. This is a way to grow strawberries “in bags”. Yes, yes, don’t laugh, it’s true - strawberries are grown “in bags” - in this situation the bag acts as a mini-greenhouse and, as experience shows, this effective method.

You will need large bags that are filled with perlite and peat moss. Make holes in them in a checkerboard pattern - like a checkered sheet, with a diameter of 70-80 mm. Also, the bags must contain irrigation system.

To better understand the system, you should watch a video on the Internet describing Dutch greenhouses and read a place for delayed communication on the Internet - the forum. There are a lot of videos on the Internet about growing strawberries and wild strawberries in hydroponics - also a worthy option, much cheaper compared to growing in open ground.

However, not every variety of strawberry can be grown in hydroponics - find out the characteristics of the chosen variety.

Strawberry care

At first, your seedlings can be kept almost at home, but not on an open balcony, of course. Keep the seedlings in peat soil (available at garden stores). If you take soil from the garden or in the nearest village, you should fertilize it additionally - watch for the presence of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and magnesium. Your young seedlings need to be watered with clean warm water right to the roots, while avoiding drops of water getting on the leaves and berries. It may be worth looking towards drip irrigation. Think about the temperature in your greenhouse, as it is cold outside for strawberries. It is worth maintaining the temperature around 19 degrees.

Don't forget about lighting, pollination and regular fertilizer additions.

Product marketing problems

So that your business is profitable maximum income- you need to apply the best practices from the network (video) and do not hesitate to ask advice from experts - after all, only the wise learn from the mistakes of others, without making their own - do not be afraid to go to the forum and ask someone who has already grown strawberries at home, in whether in bags, in hydroponics, or just at your grandmother’s in the village - you will not lose anything, but you can save money (sometimes significant) on the mistakes of others - which will only increase the profitability of your business.

So, if we talk about sales, then people running blogs and forums on the strawberry business advise following three different paths:

• Winter - sales through large stores.
• Summer - sale at the market (hire a seller).
• All year round - sale of berries to processors (strawberries, raspberries, wild strawberries, etc. - their interest is usually wide and constant).

The best sellers and businessmen will tell you that business security lies in diversification - so try to expand the circle of your clients so as not to lose income due to a broken contract or any other force majeure circumstances. Remember that your profit is in growing strawberries all year round, continuously, because your income in summer will be less than in winter, this is normal. Competition is your engine in winter, but also your brake in summer - after all, strawberries are grown in every village (sometimes even in a greenhouse, but quite rarely).

Profitability + Video

Profitability is a general economic term that characterizes the relationship between profit and cost (production costs) of products. The essence of the profitability of growing strawberries in a greenhouse (in hydroponics, soil or “bags” - it doesn’t matter) is to work all year round.

If we take into account all prices, including the purchase of seedlings in the nearest village, where the best (or almost the best) prices, rent, labor costs, taxes, fertilizers and maintenance - the average cost per 1 kg was 150 cents in 2012 (now about twice as much). If you grow in hydroponics, the costs are lower than if you grow in open ground. Accordingly, if you grow in bags using the Dutch method, the costs are lower than in hydroponics and open soil.

Take into account all costs when calculating profitability, be sure to take into account the error of calculations - what if you didn’t take something into account, what if everything goes a little differently.

Everyone talks about super-profits, about the strawberry business - if you listen, only the lazy don’t do it, and missed opportunities. They famously calculate the wild profitability and blatant profit of 144% from 1 hundred square meters. But do you know the ins and outs of beautiful numbers, do you have an idea of ​​all the expense items? Pseudo business plans won’t tell you about them. You can guess about unexpected expenses - it’s easy to go into the minus, easier than to get out of them - much easier than I imagined.

Do you believe in the possibility of making money so easily and simply from a peasant farmstead, but at the same time you have a hard time guessing where strawberry mustaches grow? Then I will try to dissuade you, save your money, energy and time. And also nerves - you will need them if you decide to seriously start growing strawberries for sale.

Strawberry business: why don’t the numbers work?

Why don’t business plans for making money on strawberries work in most cases? And because the figures given are average-ceiling. Many expense items are not taken into account - hence the profitability above 100%.

So, the average yield is up to 25 t/ha - such a yield when growing strawberries is considered enviable, believe me, on average 16-18 t/ha. This means that from our 10 acres we will get about 2000 kg with 3000-3500 in an average year on average varieties and up to 450-500 on the most productive ones - the calculations are correct for early, for remontant - completely different figures.

First, let's estimate the scale of strawberry production: without them, all calculations of profitability are water, suitable only for dropout students of agricultural universities. It’s simple: with a larger gross harvest, the cost per unit of production, in our case 1 kg of sweet strawberries, is less. So, when purchasing seedlings in bulk, a farmer buys them 2 times cheaper than a gardener who buys 5-10 pieces, and 1.5 times cheaper than a small-scale producer who buys a couple of hundred. The same situation is with the wholesale of mineral fertilizers, organic matter and covering material - everyone who wants to know knows about this. So, about the scale.

• Drip irrigation - on a plot of more than a hundred square meters is not a cheap pleasure: you will need to calculate the cost of the entire system, which also depends on the area being treated.
• Costs for fertilizers: most agricultural enterprises do not recognize how much and what fertilizers are applied. trade secret, do you know. And the articles will contain only general recommendations for amateur gardeners. You will have to delve into the art of agrochemistry yourself, look for economical and effective options.
• Costs of transportation, transportation and storage - no one knows how far a person starting his own business will have to transport goods: where can there be exact figures for transportation costs?

Unforeseen circumstances such as weather conditions, the human factor - they did not find sales, product damage, etc. are not taken into account.

I'll tell you about the expense items first. I will give the figures in conventional units, cu. that is, for the respected Internet community, in different countries living and measuring goods in different tangas. I will not describe industrial cultivation - by the way, the expression is not correct: industrial means mechanized collection. Manual - simply producing berries, in my case - small-scale production.

Our wild market is wild, but there is plenty of variability

There are many ideas for industrial cultivation of strawberries - growing in a greenhouse, hydroponically, in bags - we will not touch on these topics. Our grandmothers also started their business of growing Dutch strawberries on their 6 acres; the grandchildren who remained behind the broken trough of the economy continue it - on a larger scale, and not at home, in the front garden, but on plantations, in greenhouses. Of course, closed ground provides many advantages - but we’re not talking about greenhouse farming, but about growing on a private farmstead, in the field, so to speak.

About varieties - if you buy seedlings from famous nurseries, you are a wealthy person, but if you buy seedlings from unfamiliar farmers, without a guarantee, you will not be a wealthy person. Pure seedlings are expensive - but it’s worth it: it’s more profitable not to bother with the queen cell, but to make a profit from turnover by purchasing frigo seedlings. However, if there is something to buy for. And if not, we buy expensive ones in trusted nurseries, from well-known sellers, in trusted stores - and grow our own seedlings.

As for the best, they are a separate matter. The main thing is that it is suitable for its intended purpose - industrial, productive, transportable and tasty - there are many main things - but, alas, this is not what we are talking about.

Cost calculation: both as a joke, but seriously

If you are interested in the cost and profitability of strawberry production in Ukraine and Russia, pay attention to this point - practice is practice, it’s not about drawing beautiful numbers on paper. Pay attention, despite the author's humorous tone.

Let’s imagine a small cozy plot of land – a plantation of 10 acres. For every hundred square meters there are on average 500 bushes, 10 x 500 = 5000 pieces.
We further calculate: the price of planting material, each ZKS strawberry bush, is up to 0.2-0.5 USD. depending on the variety, class and type of seedlings - I take frigo class A, A+, A++ - it costs more if we take from 500 pieces. Total – 2500 USD (according to today’s exchange rate CU to UAH – 1:25).

If we want frigo, we will have frigo. And even better, the seedlings are clean, free from all kinds of bacteria, viral and fungal spores, have not seen pests, from nurseries - A class, the highest. This one is so expensive. It is good - there is no risk of a sudden disease of the entire planted plantation, means of prevention are needed, not protection - it is already cheaper. But the cost of production, alas, is rising, and the pocket is scared from such expenses, isn’t it - after all, we were promised a strawberry business with almost zero costs - were we really deceived? No, they simply kept silent about its real side - the real cost.

A small digression: we will talk about early varieties of strawberries. About growing remontant plants for sale - in the next article, a completely different conversation. By the way, in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, industrialists primarily grow early varieties, while remontant varieties are grown in a smaller proportion. Why - oddly enough, it’s more profitable, the turnover is faster despite the visible advantages of a larger number of repairmen, there are fewer risks.

Workshop

We will plant at the end of summer, when the heat subsides, not reaching autumn. At this time, every day is precious - it pushes back or brings next year’s harvest closer. Late July – August depending on the region.

Saplings are exclusively ZKS. Or transplant with a clod of earth. The later we plant, the more soil there is.
There should be no heat that kills the seedlings - this is the main thing. And watering and mulching must be organized.

About mulch and covering material: under film or on film - you still need it

Mulch – you can’t live without it. It can be planted on agrofibre, on film, or on straw. Vegetable - an economical option. It will protect the soil from drying out, overheating, save watering, and weeds will not break through. But where did you see the same free straw - if you saw it, then tell me - I’ll come running for it. The pleasure is not expensive, but you will have to pay for it: at least 10-15 USD. leave in your wallet a satisfied straw truck who tossed you a couple of bales.

But the economical option is often not the best. Organic mulch, humus + peat on top of straw, will cost more, 30-35 USD. it will work if you're lucky - the option is good for a garden where a dozen bushes grow. Give us something cheaper. And cheaper - expensive film or agrofibre, on which you can plant. Its price - can you handle it? If not, let’s remember about straw and forget about agrofibre and film.

The worst thing is the covering material – 150-180 USD. didn't want to pay for a roll? Like it or not, even if you don’t mulch, you need to cover it from frost in winter and early spring and for early ripening.
Since we are talking about the open-ground strawberry business and its profitability, let’s remember about tunnels, sheds, not to mention greenhouses. No, we are not talking about greenhouses - just about shelter that accelerates ripening. We will cover it with either white agrofibre or film. Will we pay? One more roll please. We won’t - we’ll do without early ripening, when strawberries are so expensive.

So this roll may not be enough, you know. And without it, you can’t cover it with a newspaper. Tea, not in grandma’s garden, when you can mulch the bed with straw and litter: it’ll be covered with snow and everything will overwinter. Once you have decided to seriously engage in the industrial cultivation of strawberries, please, cover them correctly - icing of the roots with subsequent attacks is expensive nowadays.

Without water - not there or the cost of watering

Drip irrigation will cost us about 200 green tugriks, depending on the amount of drip tape. There is no need to be stingy: there is root watering, water saving, fertigation, and optional fog installation - any whim for your money.

Let's feed and feed: how much does garden and field chemicals cost?

Let's draw up our business plan for growing strawberries next. The next cost item is organic matter and mineral fertilizers.
Organics - manure in our style: per 1 hectare there are up to 100-120 tons for planting, i.e. per 1 hundred square meters - up to 10 kg, per 100 - hundred, centner. How much good is there in your places - you know, then enter the number yourself. In Nashensky, for the delivery and for scattering honey with a mechanical cultivator - it cost only 50 USD. – it’s cheap, very cheap – my friends helped in a friendly way. And organic production is good, of course, but it is a costly business - mineral fertilizers are cheaper, and many times cheaper.
Mineral fertilizers - we will calculate the application in the year of planting, and the next year - in the phase before flowering, budding and ripening - we will reach another 55-60 USD. This is also expensive - industrialists, due to wholesale, get sweet berries cheaper, as evil tongues say - or maybe good ones - who knows.

Everything is in the shade!

And also, due to the heat and drought, not only in the south, shading nets have become fashionable. It’s a brilliant invention, you know – the berries don’t bake, the leaves don’t burn: the strawberries stand vigorous and fresh, the berries are filled with juice and sugar.

Protect yourself!

And they haven’t yet calculated the main thing: not only we love sweets, but also pests: beetleworm and strawberry mites, etc. And also diseases - spotting, Alternaria and others like them. What to do - stock up on preventative means so as not to overpay for means of control. The pleasure of using the achievements of agrochemistry will cost 30-35 USD. for our site – not too much, not too little – just right. We will add it to fertigation systems, the newfangled way, but it’s not worth it the old fashioned way - it’s ineffective, and why would a drop sit idle.

Tired of cleaning up the economy? No - then we’ll move on externally to next year - we’ll harvest the harvest. Enjoy your profits early, gentlemen, young ladies, ladies and gentlemen: new expenses await us, and at the same time we will finally calculate the income and profitability of growing strawberries.

We waited for the harvest: how much does a meter of strawberries cost?

ABOUT household chemicals– sorry, we talked about fertilizers and protective equipment above. We won't take it into account.
About the covering material - is there enough, is it worn out - even if it is enough for 2-3 years, but 2 rolls are needed. We’ll buy one in the year of planting to differentiate costs and minimize risks - in case we change our minds about suffering with agribusiness, the second - in the second year. We will cover with this material both in winter and spring. And on the third, when you have to arrange the sockets, you will still need it, don’t worry.
Pots for seedlings - in case you want to continue a good cause, for starting your own planting material and saving hard-earned money. they will come in handy. Seedlings in pots as planting material are much more valuable with an open root system.

Waiting for a miracle or the second year

Are you bored again? Then let's get down to the main thing - harvesting. You will need:
Tara ( plastic containers, blisters, glasses for retail and others). And also - the same baskets, baskets made of simple veneer - only they are more expensive than plastic. You shouldn’t skimp on capacity: the less containers we fill for the fresh market, the more intact the product, the less losses. Europeans are smart: they pack almost 100 g for supermarkets. And we are baskets and baskets, broad is the Slavic soul!
Jokes aside: the collection container should not exceed 2 kg - bring compote. Delicious, but only you need it. Or maybe it’s not even necessary - because it’s tasteless.

The container will cost at least 20-25 USD. - this is really not enough, considering the area planted with strawberries.

Stop, whoever is coming, we protect what has been grown

As you might guess, it’s not just spider bugs that can encroach on your harvest. Moreover, if your plantation is far from the estate, or even in an open field outside the city. The latter is very risky, since even in the village there will be individuals who do not hesitate to profit from other people’s goods. This point should not be ignored: strengthening the fence, wire, installing an alarm system - I went through all this from my own experience.

Who would have thought that a 70-year-old neighbor would deftly bend under two rows of a stretched homemade signal and harvest our harvest with enviable speed? No, I didn’t even say anything to her - a couple of kilograms didn’t make me poor, and I had to treat her, although people are not poor, children and grandchildren come in such cars - oh, right. But in the event of an invasion by a dysfunctional family living on the outskirts of our dacha village, I had to involve my father as an honored electrician in the matter: he finally got it right.

And there are also video cameras - to see and intimidate potential thieves and other delights of civilization. If we are ready to include them in the budget for commercial strawberry growing, then we add them to our list of expenses.

As a result, modest attempts to protect the territory from invasion will cost from 50 USD. up to 250 – it all depends on your fantasies. I’ll take a modest minimum - for the wire and connection of the alarm system, lighting - lanterns and other Chinese things.

Don’t think down on implementers: when the time comes, you will go yourself. Maybe…

Sales: if you grow strawberries for the fresh market, even with 10 acres you will need lightning-fast sales speed. Lightning fast means fast: a perishable product will not wait. Do you otherwise have refrigerated, stationary circulation refrigeration units? Is a refrigerated minibus good for business - both transportation and storage - are you ready to buy it in case you expand your strawberry fields?

In any case, you will have to spend money on fuel and lubricants for your own transport or someone else’s. How much is fuel now - remember and multiply by the required distances. At a minimum, you will have to spend at least 25 USD in a season. Either toss straws, then run away to get the film, and when the shaft starts moving - oh, how you will run into it.

If not, then again, let’s remember about the fresh market and several retail outlets where everything should be in order with the documentation, the paperwork, the so-called. sanitary and epidemiological stations - we have heard about such organizations that love to check goods, and about the patents of an honest trader - individual entrepreneurs, etc. called in different states. By the way, money is also needed for official registration activity - we are law-abiding citizens, and we don’t want to risk our goods and profits.

The surest way is to hand over the good part remaining from the market deduction to good hands wholesalers or supermarkets (they also buy at a favorable price). And give it away quickly - otherwise the goods will be left behind. Another option is to hand it over for processing, but you need to worry about it in advance, at the flowering and ovary phase, so to speak - a spoon is good for processing plants for lunch, and lunch is prepared in advance.

Having managed to find all the points of sale, we will not leave the chance of losing at least a large share of the harvest, which, as it turns out, costs a lot of money.

About the hands of our workers, workers with you

By the way, we forgot about the main thing. The most important expense item in the harvest year is labor. you just won't have time on your own. You won’t have time and that’s it. At a minimum, your family contract should consist of 3 people, deftly operating both gardening tools, and those who know how to trade and bargain. As necessary, which is most likely the maximum, you will need to hire one or two people for collection - for 10 acres this is enough under conditions of collection every day, and one more seller. How much you will pay is, of course, your commercial little or big secret. Just don't forget to subtract this amount from the amount of profit - add it to the cost of strawberries for sale. And, of course, don’t forget about it when calculating strawberry profitability.

Let's sum it up

Thus, summing up the main costs, we get a large amount.

For beginners - how much strawberries can be harvested per hundred square meters - from 220 to 250 kg in a good situation, more often - less. From our site we will count the minimum, subtracting substandard conditions, losses during transportation, etc., 200 kg.

• The cost of early strawberries on the market fluctuates 1.2-1.7 USD - depending on the region and time: in early May - more expensive, by June it becomes cheaper. Wholesale and processing are even cheaper. Let's take the average.
• According to our business plan, the cost of strawberry production is approximately as follows: 1 kg – 0.6-0.8 USD.
• Thus, we earned dirty, so to speak, 3700 USD. How much did you spend? Yes, about the same, count it. If in the first year we paid for all purchases - the same planting material, drip irrigation, film, fertilizers and protective equipment - then we did well. If you make money on top, you’re a svurkhumnitsa.

How so - you ask. But what about the profitability of the strawberry business - at least 50%, they say? This is how it will be in the following years. That is why you need to start with small volumes - if there is no free capital. Do not strive to purchase everything and everyone at once - if you are not prepared for the possibility of going into the red, not making a profit or even a payback.

Thus, to summarize the above - who said that growing strawberries as a business is 100% profitable, who talked about incredible benefits and virtually no costs? And we didn’t talk about possible losses, unexpected expenses and pitfalls awaiting the strawberry plant - the further into the forest, the more wood you can break. However, it is beneficial. This is really beneficial - if you really imagine all the expense items - I described some of them in such an unusual way.

Growing strawberries can be profitable business: fresh sweet berries are loved by many, and there is a demand for them all year round. Wherein modern technologies allow us to produce a tasty and healthy product all year round. In addition, there is practically no competition in this market. If during the short summer months strawberries are alive and aromatic and appear on sale, then in winter stores most often offer a frozen product, and fresh berries of imported origin only look like strawberries: they do not have the same taste and smell, but they have an exorbitant price.

So it’s worth offering real, “your” strawberries at an affordable price - and your business will begin to generate regular profits.

Legal issues

If you plan to sell strawberries through outlets, you will have to register as an individual entrepreneur. You can choose the Unified Agricultural Tax as the taxation system - this is the most lenient tax - you will have to pay only 6% of net profit to the treasury.

Strawberries at your home

You need to start with the technology of growing berries. It turns out that regular trips to the dacha or even the final move to the location of the beds are not at all necessary for this. You can grow strawberries in a city apartment.

"Weather in the house"

In order for strawberries to grow and bear fruit, it is necessary to create suitable climatic conditions in the room: the temperature should be from 22 degrees, humidity – 75%. Good ventilation is a must.

Shelving

To increase the useful sown area, special three-level racks are used. The height of such a rack is 1.5 meters, the width is 1 meter, but the length can be any: as far as the size of the room allows.

Each rack should be divided into three levels, and then containers about 20 centimeters high are installed on them.

The containers are filled with a substrate with the addition of humus, and strawberries are then planted in this soil.

Irrigation system

A drip irrigation system is installed before planting. You can buy it (such a product is not uncommon in specialized stores) or make it yourself. In the latter case, you will only have to spend money on materials - plastic tubes and water containers.

Growing technology

The time when the berry will be in special demand is from September to May (in the summer, as you know, there is already enough of it everywhere). But in order for you to have fresh strawberries in September, you need to start preparing just in May - it will take a total of 4 months.

First you need to create a mother plantation. This means planting seeds or ready-made strawberry seedlings in boxes with soil. If you choose seeds, keep in mind that the germination rate of strawberries is quite low, and therefore only half of them will sprout well.

Then you will need to moisten the soil well and properly illuminate the plants (strawberries require light 12 hours a day).

When the seedlings take root, it’s time to carry out the first picking (the plants are simply planted in a checkerboard pattern). And after a month and a half, the strawberries are transplanted into ready-made containers.

Now the plantation is ready for flowering, fruiting and, as a result, making a profit. After two or three years, the strawberry bushes will need to be renewed and the preparation procedure repeated again. But you will receive planting material from your own “beds”.

So, if you started agricultural work at home at the end of spring, then by autumn the berries will appear, and you can receive the first income from this business by October.

At the end of May, when the season comes to an end, the emerging flowers will need to be removed so that the strawberries do not bear fruit. In this case, the bushes will begin to sprout “mustaches” with young rosettes - planting material for renewing the plantation.

How to choose a strawberry variety

Not every strawberry variety is suitable for growing at home. Here are expert recommendations to help you make the right choice?

• the variety must be remontant (i.e. the plant blooms several times a year);
• the formation of the ovary must occur continuously;
• the berries should be large, brightly and evenly colored (this is what buyers want to see)
• Strawberries should have a strong aroma and distinct taste.

We are looking for a sales market

You should think about who to sell the crop to during the business planning process. Here are the possible options:

Sell ​​strawberries yourself by renting a kiosk or space in an indoor market. In this case, the profit will be greater, but additional expenses will be required: you will need to purchase equipment (scales, refrigerator, display case). The cost of rent can also be considered an expense.

Sell ​​berries in small wholesale to shops and supermarkets. In this case, income will be lower than in the first case (the price offered trading enterprise, is unlikely to be high). But much less time will be spent selling the goods.

Work with a wholesale company. In this case, the price of strawberries will be the lowest, but you will not have to waste time on selling them or deal with delivering the berries to stores.

What you need to sell strawberries

Before starting independent trading, entering into contracts with supermarkets or a wholesale company, you need to take care of obtaining the necessary documents:

• GOST declaration of conformity (for this you need to contact the Sanitary and Epidemiological Station and the results of laboratory tests must confirm that the product meets the requirements);
• phytosanitary certificate (it must be obtained from Rosselkhoznadzor for any products of plant origin).

Calculating expenses and income

As already mentioned, a home business growing strawberries can become a very profitable business. For this to happen, you need to take a responsible approach to its planning and organization, and most importantly, optimize costs.

If you decide to grow strawberries in an apartment, the size of the plantation is unlikely to exceed 80 square meters. meters (even if you arrange the boxes in three levels). Thus, the daily harvest will be about 10–12 kg of fresh strawberries daily.

You can process and maintain such a farm alone, hired work force will not need. There are certain advantages to this: expenses for renting premises, salaries, work clothes, etc. you won't have to carry it.

Let's calculate how much it will cost to start a business, provided that you grow strawberries yourself and sell them to a wholesale company.

• Equipment (containers, racks) – 30-35 thousand rubles;
• Soil, compost – 15 thousand rubles;
• Planting material – 3-4 thousand rubles;
• Irrigation system – 30 thousand rubles;
• Sodium lamps for lighting - 30 thousand rubles.

Thus, to start a business you will need a little more than 100 thousand rubles.

Monthly expenses in this case are small - they only include electricity for lighting and heating (about 20 thousand rubles). With drip irrigation, there is no waste of water.

The monthly harvest is about 4 kg per square meter. If we take an area of ​​80 square meters as an example, we get 320 kilograms.

The wholesale price of strawberries in the off-season is 300–400 rubles per kilogram. Thus, the amount of income will be about 120 thousand rubles.

As you can see, the costs of setting up a business pay off already in the first months, and then the business reaches a stable profit.

It is better for farmers to build medium-sized greenhouses (100 - 120 sq. m). Polycarbonate can be replaced with a double layer polyethylene film, but such coverage will have to be updated after 1-2 years.

Large greenhouse farms often use steel frame greenhouses covered with glass. The pitched roof structure provides good daylight and does not allow snow to linger. Glass retains heat well, but it costs significantly more than film and polycarbonate.

Strawberries in industrial conditions grown in a shelving manner, or using hanging Dutch technologies. Industrial greenhouses for strawberries with this arrangement save space and make harvesting easier. It is also possible to plant strawberry bushes directly in the ground.

Hydroponic technologies reduce the cost of the process, but significantly worsen the taste of the berries. They acquire a characteristic watery taste and lose their aroma. A greenhouse with a blank wall made of cinder blocks will help you save on heating costs. Usually the northern wall is made blank.

The blocks reliably protect the greenhouse from cold winds, and they can also provide additional heating according to the principle solar battery. There must be a greenhouse equipped with a ventilation system and drip irrigation, good lighting.

Advantages and disadvantages of business

Business for growing strawberries in a greenhouse has many advantages, which makes it especially attractive for beginners.

1. Strawberries are very popular. It is readily purchased by both end consumers and shops and businesses. Catering.
2. Competition is low, strawberries are present in sufficient quantities on the market for no more than 3 months a year.
3. Imported berries are significantly inferior in taste and aroma to domestic varieties grown in soil.
4. In the winter-spring period, premiums for strawberries increase significantly.

Among the disadvantages business can be noted:

• costs for the construction and equipment of greenhouses;
• high cost of electricity for heating;
• need for registration legal entity for working with stores;
• During the summer season, the markup on products decreases.

Variety selection

Remontant strawberries that do not require pollination are ideal for this. Both early and mid-season varieties can be planted in closed ground.

It is important to choose options with fairly dense berries that can withstand transportation well. Consumers prefer brightly colored large strawberries regular shape with a rich aroma.

Among the most popular varieties:

Entrepreneurs with experience in greenhouse farming recommend choosing varieties of Russian, Dutch, American and Polish selection. They take root well in protected soil, do not get sick and produce good yields.

Greenhouse equipment rules

Still at the construction stage of the greenhouse it is important to think through the system. The most convenient option is to combine biofuel with artificial heating. An infrared cable or pipes are laid underground, through which warm air is driven. For heating, you can use an electric boiler or fire, as well as stoves.

Prepare biofuel, mixing horse, pig or goat manure with straw, spilling the mixture with water, covering it with film and leaving it for several days. Rotted manure is spread under the top layer of soil. This mixture maintains the temperature in the greenhouse up to 25ºC.

Very important point – soil preparation. For strawberries, you need a light mixture of equal parts of turf and humus with the addition of ash and mineral fertilizers.

To optimize acidity, a mixture of superphosphate and potassium chloride is suitable. The soil must be thoroughly loosened.

For suspended technologies, you can use a peat-perlite mixture, which must be steamed. The prepared substrate is poured into plastic sleeves and placed on racks installed along the walls of the greenhouse. Nutritious the mixture retains moisture well and accelerates the development of strawberry bushes. The Dutch system increases strawberry yields, allowing you to remove 8 kg of berries from one sleeve.

Strawberry care

The grown seedlings are planted in the greenhouse. When using Dutch hanging technologies, each bush is placed in a separate pot filled with nutritious substrate. When planting bushes in the ground placed in rows with a distance of 30-45 cm. To optimize watering and maintain the required level of humidity in the greenhouse, you should install an automatic drip system.

The soil should not dry out, but flooding is also unacceptable. Stagnation of water in the soil provokes the disease gray rot, which can destroy the crop. Humidity in the greenhouse should not fall below 80%. After the bushes take root, you need to ventilate the room daily.

Once every two weeks it is necessary to apply mineral fertilizers: ammonium nitrate and potassium chloride diluted in water. After flowering begins, you need gradually increase the temperature in a greenhouse, this will speed up the ripening of the berries, making their taste bright and rich.

Accounting for income and expenses

Before starting work, a detailed business plan, taking into account upcoming expenses and planned income. The list of expenses must include:

• rent or purchase of land;
• building materials for greenhouses and costs for its construction;
• greenhouse equipment (ventilation, irrigation, lighting systems);
• purchase of planting material, fertilizers and insecticides;
• fare;
• registration of a legal entity (required for working with retail chains);
• salary of hired personnel.

Growing strawberries in a greenhouse all year round as a business is not cheap for a private owner.

Construction and equipment of a polycarbonate greenhouse with an area of ​​100 square meters. m will cost 90,000 rubles. You will have to pay for heating and fertilizers from 15,000 rubles per month. Another 15,000 rubles will have to be spent on purchasing planting material; about 10,000 rubles costs to register a legal entity and obtain certificates for products.

Helps reduce costs:

• use of combined fuel;
• growing seedlings yourself, from seeds;
• refusal of hired labor;
• replacing polycarbonate for covering the greenhouse with a cheaper film.

Calculate your expected income from the farm. With a yield of 5 kg per 1 sq. m can be removed from 400 kg of berries. The average purchase price is 600 rubles per kilogram. The price varies throughout the year from 200 to 800 rubles per kg, depending on the time of year. Thus, profit from one greenhouse will be 240,000 rubles per month. The profitability of a strawberry business in a greenhouse is from 50%.

In winter, the markup on berries increases 1.5 times. This is due to a decrease in supply and high demand from retail chains. However, it is worth considering that heating costs also increase during this period.

Many farmers refuse from growing strawberries in winter, preferring earlier planting and extending the fruiting period until November.

If you decide to start another business growing, or, then look at the articles on our website.

Entrepreneurs who decide to grow strawberries in winter should sign agreements with retail chains and enterprises Catering. This will help minimize the percentage of defects and stabilize income.

Strawberries are certainly loved by many, but there is one problem - the seasonal ripening of the berries. The harvest takes place in June - July, then it can be eaten only in preparations (jam, jam, frozen) or you can buy an imported product, which does not always have good quality due to long transportation and huge amount chemicals introduced into berries to increase shelf life.

Is it possible to provide yourself with fresh strawberries all year round?

Yes, you can! And not only provide for yourself, but also make good money at the same time.

In order to make significant profits, you don’t need much - work out a business plan, decide on a growing location, choose the best seeds or seedlings, grow a crop and, of course, sell it.

So, let's open a strawberry business.

Business plan or calculating the costs and profitability of growing strawberries

First, you need to decide how and where the plants will be grown; the level of costs directly depends on this point.

There are two options:

1. Open ground.
2. Greenhouse.

An open ground business is the least expensive option, but it is only suitable for traditional summer berry harvesting and is not suitable for achieving stable, year-round income.

It is believed that growing strawberries at home is not as profitable a business as, for example, in open areas or in a greenhouse. This opinion is not entirely correct; it all depends on individual conditions, the availability of free space for planting, as well as the choice of the right varieties.

Costs for greenhouse cultivation

If you don't want to grow strawberries in traditional ways - in boxes, containers or beds, try growing them in large plastic bags. This method does not require large areas, which increases the profitability of growing strawberries, and it is much easier to care for the plants.

Profitability

According to statistics, every year the demand for strawberries increases by an average of 40%. In this regard, the profitability of its cultivation, especially in autumn, spring and winter periods, can be 100 percent or more.

For example, let’s consider the profitability of a small farm, i.e. there is 1 heifer with an area of ​​80 m². In such an area, 65 m² of shelving can be freely placed, each m² of usable area with fruit-bearing plants produces about 5 kg of berries per month - 65x5x400 rubles. (cost of berries in the off-season) = 130,000 rub. - profit.

From such a simple example it is clearly seen that even taking into account all the necessary expenses when growing strawberries in a greenhouse, this business is very profitable.

According to experts, the payback of the primary costs of the strawberry business, when growing berries in a greenhouse, is no more than 3 months, to this it is necessary to add another 3 months for plant growth, ovary and ripening of berries. As a result, it turns out that within six months you can get a net profit.

Business – strawberries all year round. Agrotechnics of cultivation

Choosing a greenhouse

The soil

To ensure intensive and continuous fruiting, ordinary garden or vegetable soil is not suitable; it is necessary to use only an enriched, highly nutritious substrate. To independently prepare 500 kg of suitable soil, you will need:

• Straw (wheat or oats) – 300 kg.
• Mullein or chicken droppings – 190 kg.
• Ground chalk – 7 kg.
• Urea – 3 kg.

After preparing all components, composting is carried out. To do this, they are laid out in a pile in layers: 20 cm straw, 12 cm dung or mullein, urea. Lay out layers until a pile is formed with a height of about 1.8–2 m; its width can be arbitrary, but it is more convenient if it is 1.5 m. When forming a pile, each layer is poured with warm (not hot) water. water. On average, the fermentation process begins within a week. In order for fermentation to proceed evenly, the components are mixed every 10 days, adding chalk in equal doses. After completing the composting process, the nutrient soil (substrate) should have:

• color – dark brown;
• structure – homogeneous, light;
• There is no ammonia smell.

While creating home business, strawberries are grown under the same conditions as in a greenhouse: light level, preparation of a nutrient medium, watering. The only thing that agricultural technicians recommend changing is the containers for planting seedlings. There is no need to install racks with bulky boxes in a room, garage or on a balcony. Instead, you can propagate plants using the Dutch method in bags or grow them in some kind of hanging compact container.

Watering

It is optimal to use the drip irrigation method for irrigating strawberries. Such a system consists of simple structures:

• flexible, rubber hoses with pre-drilled holes;
• dropper;
• the source of water is an ordinary tap or watering container.

With drip irrigation, water flows directly under the plant, to the root system, nourishing it without waterlogging the soil.

How to make money on strawberries - implementation

Don't know how to make money from strawberries? Before starting a business, you need to think in advance about how and where to subsequently sell your products. Considering the properties of strawberries (a delicate berry that cannot be stored without special equipment), this question is very relevant.

Marketing methods

• Independent sale.
  The method is quite problematic since, firstly, it is necessary to rent retail space, at least some kind of stall, secondly, to purchase equipment for storing and cooling berries and, thirdly, to have a lot of free time for trading.
• Sales of berries to retail chains - supermarkets, private sellers, mini-stores.
  This option is not bad. After concluding a supply agreement, providing a product quality certificate and a document on the fertilizers used during cultivation, you can supply the berries to trading network and receive your legal income without worrying about anything.
• Supply of berries to processing plants.
  As a rule, such enterprises pay significantly less for the products provided than what can be received from sellers of fresh berries, but there is also a positive aspect here - volumes. For people who have large areas of strawberry planting, this option can be extremely profitable if they sign a long-term agreement with the company with regular supplies of raw materials.

Video about strawberry business for beginners