Autumn is the season for collecting cedar cones. Our summer, unlike other regions, turned out to be rainy, which means that the harvest will be rich. And also the Siberian pine is the champion in the yield of cones and in the number of seeds in them. And this means that in the fall, Siberians will have the opportunity to earn extra money as a cedar cone picker (otherwise, this profession is called a “shishkar” or “shishkoboy”).

Nikolai Ponikarev, a shishkar with eight years of experience, tells about the intricacies of the work.
— How do you avoid unforeseen situations in your work?
- You have to be very careful. A cone is mined in two ways: by stab and by directly climbing a tree. I have not tried the second method and do not advise anyone. They are often hunted by boys. And not always successfully - they fall, they break their legs. The main tool for extracting cones is a stab. I heard a story about the people of Irkutsk who went for nuts... forgetting him at home. You understand the absurdity of this situation if you know what it is.
— Tell us about the process of collecting cones.
- They hit wood with a stab. You need to hide your head: the falling cones, although they hit the branches, are slowed down, but they hit sensitively. By the first blow, it is clear whether it is worth “milking” this tree yet or there is nothing there. If a decision is made to strike, then, like the first strike, three or four strikes are made at once at a lively pace - this is how the top swings. Then collect the fallen cones. Sometimes already peeled ones come across - this is a squirrel prepared for breakfast, and we violated its plans. And once a chipmunk fell on me and my father, along with cones, from somewhere from a small height. When the bag is full to capacity, it is placed in a conspicuous place and a new one is started. Having filled both bags, the stab is left in the cedar forest, and the cone is taken away.
Do you always work in pairs?
- Most often. If there are two people in the artel, one works with a stab, the other collects. With a good harvest, one does not have time to collect a cone, so the one who beats from time to time puts a stab to the tree and helps to collect. But if three people work in an artel, then one beats, and two collect. By agreement, artel workers sometimes change jobs, each in turn becomes either an assemblyman or a beater.
- Can you make a living?
- If you work hard, you can earn good money. Not a single day, not a single hour can be wasted here. Therefore, fishermen, as a rule, work all daylight hours, with short breaks and always a hearty lunch. Wake up early in the morning. They usually work without days off and rest all season. Only when it starts raining or snowing do they stay "at the base" and work on the bud. The rest of the bump is usually processed at the end of the season.

THAT ALSO HAPPENS....
For a whole day, a group of residents of the Krasnoarmeysky district of Primorye remained “hostage” with the Amur tiger. People went to the taiga to collect pine cones and decided to stay overnight in a winter hut. In the morning they found a tiger lying in front of the door. The predator rushed to the door and beat on it with its paws. People were able to free themselves only a day later, when a car arrived for them. Frightened by the noise of the engine, the beast disappeared into the taiga.

A stalk is a huge wooden hammer (one meter in length). The stab is usually done by the most experienced and, most importantly, skilled in the team. The dimensions of the stab vary according to the physical ability of the operator (or operators) of the stab. An ordinary stab is such that it can be lifted from the ground and worn by one adult, 30-40 kilograms. It happens (if the bump goes hard) that you have to make a stab such that you have to carry it together.

There is work!

In Novosibirsk, we found two vacancies for pickers of cedar cones. Men aged 25-45 who have a practical understanding of the taiga, do not abuse alcohol, and have no criminal record will be glad to see the positions. You have to work remotely from home, in the taiga, in the Tomsk region. The employer guarantees to provide workers with housing (tents), sleeping bags, food, workwear. The season starts in September, those who want to earn money can work until the end of October. Payment is piecework, 160 rubles per bag of cedar cones. According to the employer, it is realistic to collect 10-12 bags per day. How much it turns out - consider yourself.
8-923-242-21-16, Evgeny, 8-923-704-86-22, Fedor

In Primorye, the black market for pine nuts, if not exceeding, is quite comparable in volume to the legal one. Resources are flowing to China, the main smuggling goes through Siberia, under "leftist" licenses, when huge volumes of Far Eastern nuts are exported under the guise of Siberian.

In Russia, 342 forest plots with a total area of ​​2 million hectares have been leased out for the harvesting of food forest resources and the collection of medicinal plants. Their main area is concentrated in the Far East (Primorsky Territory - 697 thousand hectares and Khabarovsk Territory - 312 thousand hectares) and in Siberia (Tomsk Region - 444 thousand hectares, the Republic of Buryatia - 123 thousand hectares and the Irkutsk Region - 112 thousand hectares). ha), follows from the data of the Union of Wild Plant Processors.

All-Russian actual collection of pine nuts, according to experts, is 40 thousand tons. The unique resources of the coastal taiga are in great demand in the Asia-Pacific region. The main consumer of cones - China - is a strong market with a rapidly growing potential. True, export flows are by no means civilized.

“Officially, the collection of cedar cones by the population is allowed from October 1, although the cone falls by September 10, but today the Chinese in Dalnerechensk accept it, still green, at a price of up to 15 rubles,” he said. one of the market participants.

“Green walnut cannot be harvested, it will not reach the end consumer anyway, it will then be mixed with quality goods and they will try to sell it, and in the end it will be thrown away by the processor as unusable,” says Alexey Karasev, director of Production and Procurement Base LLC (Arsenyev), coordinator of the Association of Tenants of Cedar Forests of the Far East.

“There, in the taiga, there is a lot of money, but the market, you know, is dangerous,” she said. Galina Golubeva, director of Chuguevsky rayzagotohotprom LLC. “As for the local population, there are big problems with work in the Chuguevsky district, and often people use the only opportunity to get some money.”

The game is worth the candle: one shishkar in a good season can earn up to 50 thousand rubles, market participants note.

Incomprehensible economics

“The Far Eastern walnut is considered a “premium class” - it is valued higher than the Siberian one. In China, for example, 1 kg of a Siberian pine nut kernel costs 90 yuan, ours costs 140. 50 yuan is quite a big difference,” says Oksana Lee, individual entrepreneur (produces products under the KEDRUS brand).

Moreover, the customs regulations do not provide for separate codes for the Far Eastern and Siberian walnuts, which opens a loophole for smugglers, and thousands of tons of "taiga gold" flow away in the Siberian direction, bypassing the law. “The solution lies on the surface - to separate the codes,” comments Alexey Karasev. “This is being discussed at all sites where the problem of smuggling is discussed, including at the recent National Forestry Forum, but so far things have not gone beyond declarations.”

According to experts, the players in the black market for pine nuts are the population, buyers of illegal goods and corrupt officials. But there is also a fourth side - the harvesters of wild plants. At the same time, the auction system for providing lease plots to forest users, introduced on February 1, 2018, raises a lot of questions. Through auctions, according to market participants, are fabulous amounts that do not fit into the balance of "debit and credit."

Alexey Karasev: “If we translate the declared figures into 1 kg of pine nuts, then the cost that will have to be paid in the form of rent will be 130 rubles per kilogram - this is not just a lot, it is some kind of madness. And if you dig deeper, it seems that some of the participating firms do not even have a normal statutory fund and generally represent dubious enterprises.

“Some leasing, Siberian companies took part in the last auction, the amounts were huge, unattainable for us - 9-10 million for a walnut collection site. And if you look in general at the tenants of plots transferred for the purpose of collecting food forest resources, you can see a very interesting alignment: for the alleged annual fee, the state is paid a price that makes such a business (if it is legitimate) unprofitable. At the same time, certain companies export 500 tons of walnuts annually. And where are their collectors? - told another market participant.

Raw material appendage

Meanwhile, enterprises that are ready to develop pine nut processing in Primorsky Krai do not have the opportunity to legally purchase raw materials from the population, which is de jure allowed to collect them only for their own needs.

The Union of Wild Plant Processors lists the lack of a complete environmental and resource assessment of reserves, and the limited material and technical resources for harvesting, and the low level of industrial processing of raw materials among the problems of the industry. The saddest thing for all players is that the collection and processing of wild plants are not listed in All-Russian classifier species economic activity, which means that some specific "industry" types and forms state support are not provided for them.

Oksana Lee: “With the introduction of the HACCP system, we had to build a new plant. And if on the old equipment we processed 600 kg per day, or about 20 tons per month, now our enterprise is able to produce about 40 tons of processed pine nut kernels. Accordingly, large volumes of products will require new jobs, because a whole chain stretches behind us: we cooperate with several companies, order boxes, labels, packaging, bottles for cedar oil - we move several industries at once, but do not work for full power because it is impossible today to sell so many goods for export.

And the demand, of course, is - in China, Japan. When we are present at various exhibitions, Europeans are interested - they say they would buy. In China, many factories operate on Russian raw materials. Our people would also work, give them such an opportunity. Now we are pursuing the goal of assigning customs codes to finished products to enable the export of peeled pine nut kernels.”

But Primorye remains a source of raw materials: Siberian and Far Eastern walnuts are processed in China and exported from there to America, Europe, and Malaysia. “Only this year, according to my information, over 3 thousand tons were exported,” complains Alexey Karasev.

In order to develop the deep processing of pine nuts (and other wild plants), according to market participants, it is necessary for producers to simplify the preparation of documentation for the sale of goods, open access to the raw material base - for example, by allowing the purchase of certain volumes from the population without official registration labor relations(on the this moment this aspect needs to be employment contracts) and tightly control export flows.

Pine nuts are being harvested in Primorye. What is it like to make money picking wild plants?

For many people in the region, this is the only source of income, and for someone - an opportunity to enrich themselves. Regional authorities decided to curb the appetites of pine nut pickers and bring the industry out of the shadows.

Finding an official job 200 km from Vladivostok is difficult. for one official workplace three candidates apply. The local population earns mainly from fishing and collecting wild plants, in particular pine nuts. Hiking in the forest for a bump is associated with a risk to life: either you have to face wild animals, or you can fall from a tree.

A good harvest happens every four years, the last was in 2014. Then people realized that they could earn money on the "gifts of the taiga", they began to acquire ATVs for traveling through the forest. Some have made big money.

In 2013, the coordinator of the association of tenants of cedar forests of the Far East submitted to the administration of Primorsky Krai an initiative to create a center for the processing of walnuts and wild plants in the region. The project was supposed to cost 100 million rubles, co-financing was requested from the regional budget. The local press began to talk about the construction of a plant for processing wild plants in the north. But things didn't go beyond talk.

There are processing plants in the region, but they are private. Aleksey Karasev, a tenant of a forest plot in the walnut-fishing zone, together with partners built one on his territory. The production and procurement base sells most of the pine nuts to China. In Russia, demand for pine nuts is in Moscow, Yekaterinburg and Siberia.

Business calls it “unstable” because the Forest Code does not correspond to reality, complains about the red tape with obtaining licenses: “To obtain a license, it takes us from 2 to 6 months. Not every potential buyer is able to wait that long. One of the proposals is to make some kind of program like EGAISA (Unified State Automated Information system timber accounting and transactions with it, a federal information system created to ensure the accounting of timber, information on transactions with it, as well as the analysis, processing of information submitted to it and control over the reliability of such information. - Ed.), so that they can see and, literally within 5-10 days, having confirmed the legality of the harvest, it would be possible to obtain and issue a license.

Pine nuts are sold on the local classifieds site for 200-300 rubles/kg. An experienced picker can collect 6 bags of cones per day, that is, approximately 30 kg of nuts. The income of the "cedar hunter" per day is about 6,000 rubles, about 132 thousand rubles per month. If you work in a team for an entrepreneur: they promise from 50 thousand rubles. Wherein average salary in the region this year, according to Primstat, 33 thousand rubles.

“A wild number of fires broke out in the places of mass harvesting of cones in 2017. We have announced a special fire regime throughout Primorsky Krai. On October 12, a state of emergency had to be introduced for several days in four municipal districts,” says Valentin Karpenko, acting director of the regional forestry department.

Acting Governor Andrey Tarasenko proposed to legislatively moderate the ardor of cones: "If the harvesting quota is determined, then there will be no such mass destruction of cedar and fires. Now everyone can harvest at least 100 tons, and does it by any means. It is necessary to provide in the Forest Code not only law, but also limiting standards for everyone - both amateurs and fishermen.

Entrepreneur Alexei Karasev believes that restrictions are needed. But if the villagers are deprived of the opportunity to earn money, the villages will quickly become empty - only the sale of wild plants keeps them in their native places.

Recall that we previously reported that the Europeans are discussing Russia with interest. (

The Legislative Assembly of the Jewish Autonomous Region has submitted a bill to the State Duma, which proposes to allow the regions to independently determine the timing of the collection of pine nuts and increase the fine for violations of the rules when collecting them. The corresponding bill is placed in the database of the State Duma.

AT explanatory note It is noted to the document that special organizations are engaged in the harvesting of pine nuts. They collect pine nuts for seeds only in October, when they ripen. However, the population of the Jewish Autonomous Region begins to harvest pine nuts even before they are fully ripe. This may "reduce the volume of reforestation activities" and "deplete the food supply of wild animals," the explanatory note states. At the same time, as specified in the document, fishing is seasonal, and pine nut harvests do not occur every year, but approximately once every four years.

That is why the draft law proposes that the regions determine the right to determine the timing of the collection of forest resources themselves.

The legislature of the region also proposed to increase administrative fines for violations in the collection of nuts and other non-timber forest resources, including medicinal herbs.

For unauthorized collection of non-timber forest resources and their harvesting illegally, the bill proposes to increase the fine for citizens from 1 to 2 thousand rubles. (now - from 500 to 1 thousand rubles), for officials - from 3 thousand to 5 thousand rubles. (now - from 1 to 2 thousand rubles), for legal entities- from 20 thousand to 30 thousand rubles. (now - from 10 thousand to 20 thousand rubles).

In April, a bill amending the Forest Code was submitted to the State Duma, allowing citizens to collect deadwood in the forests for free.

In 2015, Russian foresters harvested a record harvest of cones over the past 10 years. 154 tons of seeds were collected, which is 50 tons more than planned.

The volume of wild berries in Russia is almost 9 million tons, valuable pine nuts - almost 1 million tons, mushrooms in the forests - more than 4 million tons. At the same time, Russians are content with 2.5% of all cranberries and blueberries growing in the country, 3.5% of pine nuts and 10% of mushrooms. Pine nuts are exported, about 10-12 thousand tons, blueberries - up to 15 thousand tons, cranberries - about 5 thousand tons, cranberries - 2-3 thousand tons, mushrooms - up to 3 thousand tons. China is one of the major consumers of Russian forest resources. nuts

During 2012, 10.32 thousand tons of pine nuts were exported from the Russian Federation, which is 11 times more than in 2011. In the export of pine nuts, about 70% is occupied by Siberian pine nuts, the rest is Korean pine nuts. Most nuts are collected in Primorsky Krai, about 70% in 2011 and about 60% in 2012. Almost 30% of the collection of nuts falls on the Tomsk region. The rest is going to Novosibirsk region and the Jewish Autonomous Region.

More than 90% of exports of pine nuts go to China: in 2012, all 99% were exported to China and 1% was shared by Italy and Germany.

The export of pine nuts is subject to licensing, which was introduced in 2010. Prior to licensing, Chinese companies were buying up countless cheap pine nuts harvested randomly by local residents, damaging the forests and irritating local logging companies that rent 1.13 million hectares of forest to collect cones and even pay taxes. With the introduction of licensing, some order in the shishkosbor was established. The license is issued by the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

In 2012, there was a rumor that the licensing would be cancelled. This was probably due to the fact that in 2011 there was a large harvest of nuts, and the procurement enterprises were unable to obtain licenses and could not sell the harvested nuts. Then licensing was simplified. But in 2012, the licensing was not canceled and thus the cedar forest was saved.

Although who knows what is there with licensing and how strict it is. On the Internet, it is quite possible to find announcements like: “we offer a license for the export of pine nuts in any volume”, “I will sell pine nuts, we issue a license”, and so on.

By law, anyone is not allowed to collect pine nuts, you can run into a fine. The season for picking nuts is determined by local authorities. But the fruiting periods are beyond the control of the authorities: good harvests of pine nuts are observed once every 3-4 years, and once every ten years a particularly large harvest is achieved.

wild plants

In Russia, historically and geographically, three centers for the processing of wild berries and mushrooms have developed: the North-West region, the Central region and Siberia. Truly significant volumes of picking mushrooms and berries fall, of course, on Siberia (and the Far East). More than 100 types of berries, 12 types of fruit plants grow here, 29 types of berries and 4 fruit plants are of nutritional value.

Most of all, wild plants are collected in the Tomsk region, although there are many in Altai and the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

40% of Siberian mushrooms are distributed in the domestic Russian market, 20% is exported.

Siberians feed on the rest of the mushrooms. Abroad, the main lovers of Siberian mushrooms live in Italy, where a significant part of exports is sent. Mushrooms are respected in Germany and Scandinavia, as well as in Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Frozen mushrooms are exported in large quantities to China.

Pantry forest edible wealth in Siberia - Tomsk region. No more than 5% of the potential for collecting wild plants in the Tomsk region is used. In 2011, more than 1 billion rubles worth of wild plants were harvested in the Tomsk region, almost 40% of the collection was exported, 80% of the export went to China. Taking into account the fact that it is not necessary to sow, water and fight with Colorado beetles for a frail harvest, the collection and processing of wild plants is more profitable than agriculture.

In 2011, a billion worth of mushrooms were harvested in the forests of the Tomsk province. More than 80% of exports are sent to China.
In the Tomsk region, it is theoretically possible to harvest 11.2 thousand tons of lingonberries, cranberries, blueberries, blueberries and 18 thousand tons of mushrooms (porcini, boletus, boletus, boletus, moss mushrooms). In 2013, the local government adopted a long-term target program"Development of the field of harvesting and processing of wild-growing raw materials in the Tomsk region for 2013-2015." Investments will be attracted - more than 400 million rubles, the regional budget will go to grants to support the procurement and processing of wild raw materials.

It is planned to master the technology of manufacturing granulated mushrooms, organize multifunctional wild plants processing centers with dryers, freezers and other technological equipment.

When the program is completed, the Tomsk region will harvest not 10,000 tons of wild plants as in 2013 (almost already collected), but 16,000 tons in 2015. 75% is planned to be taken out of the region and sold.

Medicinal plants, animals and mushrooms

A special place in exports is occupied by medicines of natural origin or raw materials for medicines of traditional Chinese and Tibetan medicine. The Far East of Russia is leading in this direction.

Of the 974 species of local plants, 470 are in high demand in Chinese and 350 in Tibetan medicine.

There are exported fine-leaved isthod, licorice, prickly eleutherococcus, lemongrass, Manchurian aralia and Keiske lily of the valley and much more. Some extremely important herbs for Chinese medicine are listed in the Red Book of the USSR, for example, real ginseng, high lure, heart-shaped aralia, and others. They are protected by state services, and therefore serve as an object of smuggling. And they are exported in large quantities. Smuggling sometimes causes irreparable damage to the wealth of the domestic fauna. For example, in the 90s, the roots of Rhodiola rosea were barbarously collected. Its properties are similar to ginseng. As a result, the amount of Rhodiola rosea decreased sharply.

Chinese traditional doctors and their patients greatly value medicinal mushrooms. And they also grow in the Russian Far East. The most famous is chaga, which is exported in fairly large volumes, but most often illegally. In addition to chaga, poachers also hunt for matshutake mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms and Lion's mane.

Once, by historical standards, not very long ago, in the 17th century, a treatise was created in Tibet, which described the healing properties of not only plants, but also animals. Moreover, 53 species of these animals lived for some reason in the Russian Far East. Accordingly, from here they were taken out.

In the Soviet era, bear bile, antlers and penises of deer, carcasses of Amur tigers listed in the Red Book were exported to China

Under the Soviet regime, the export of body parts (derivatives) of unfortunate little animals was put on stream. In the era of late stagnation, bear bile, antlers of sika deer, red deer, red deer, saiga horns, bear bile, deer penises were officially exported. Why are there deer penises, the completely official company Medexport officially exported the carcasses of the rarest Amur tiger. A real environmental sabotage, an irreparable loss and outright vandalism - not everything was good in this your USSR. And it's no better now. Derivatives are a very profitable legal and smuggled export.

Every year, Russia officially exports up to 10 tons of bear hands to China.
Asia, like Russia in many ways, is committed to traditions, even if they are clearly anachronistic. There are modern effective medicines, but the market requires natural “medicines”, and in China, as well as in other countries of Southeast Asia, it is derivatives of Russian origin that are in great demand. For example, the antlers of the Altai deer and the Far Eastern deer, saiga horns are highly valued. Bear paws are also exported, up to 10 tons of paws per year are exported to China with the permission of the CITES Administrative Authority of Russia (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna). Far Eastern feline derivatives are officially banned for export almost completely. But, of course, they are smuggled out.

The Nutsy company, founded by three graduates of Novosibirsk State University, has earned millions of dollars in ten years from pine nuts. Today it is one of the largest Russian suppliers of healthy treats. With the story about "Natsy" our new heading "Chance" starts. In it, "Ko" will talk about entrepreneurs who have found their niche and succeeded in a business that started from scratch.

Over the last two seasons (counted from autumn to autumn), Chinese purveyors have taken 40,000 - 44,000 tons of pine nuts from Russia. Having processed the walnut cheaply in China, they are actively supplying it abroad. Including to Russia. According to Igor Romanov, the founder and general director of the Novosibirsk company Natsy, the "Chinese" problem is almost the only one that prevents his business from growing both domestically and abroad. " Russian companies yet they cannot process such volumes as Chinese ones, - he explains. “Duty-free export of nuts hinders the development of production in the country of products from it.”

Local buyers of natural raw materials are many times inferior to Chinese rivals. Last season, the volume of Russian procurement barely approached 8,000 tons. About a third of them fell on Nutsy. So far, the Siberian company does not know how to deal with competitors from China. But priority measures are already being taken - the company is going to focus on pine nuts (now it also has hazelnuts with peanuts in its assortment) and strengthen its position on domestic shelves.

Exploration

Novosibirsk "Natsy" managed to close 30% of the cedar nut harvesting for itself in about 10 years. After graduating in 1993 from the Faculty of Geology and Geophysics of the Novosibirsk state university, Igor Romanov was thinking about his future profession. But the idea to deal with pine nuts was born not at all because of geological curiosity, but by chance. After graduating from high school, the former student went to Ireland. It was on the shelves of local stores that the tourist saw packaged pine nut kernels. The spectacle for a Siberian is unusual. At native food markets, pine nuts could be bought either in cones or by weight (the main unit of measurement was a glass). The packaged pine nut kernel impressed Romanov so much that, returning to Novosibirsk, he did not think for a long time how to earn money.

At that time in Siberia, attempts to make money on wild plants (wild berries, mushrooms, nuts) were already being made. True, it was difficult to call it a stable business. Peddlers from the mainland brought various goods to remote Siberian villages, which were exchanged for berries, mushrooms or nuts. Rarely practiced and commodity-money exchange. Some tried to systematize the collection of raw materials, but failed. Some people left all the money in the taiga during the season, and did not "recapture" it in the city markets due to the fact that they did not fully calculate the demand. Igor Romanov tried to take into account the experience of his predecessors. Before starting a business, he and his two partners, university friends Alexei Bychkov and Vadim Eliseev, thoroughly calculated the purchase and sale prices, the peeling costs. In the 1994-1995 season, graduates of Novosibirsk State University, calling themselves "Kedr", bought a little more than a ton of nuts in the taiga with their own savings.

Despite all the calculations, Romanov and his comrades still had difficulties with sales, as did the “burnt-out” pioneers of the niche. “We started supplying packaged pine nut kernels to stores, but this product turned out to be absolutely new for them,” the entrepreneur recalls. - There was no confidence in good sales. Therefore, we gave the nut for sale. Very soon, retailers were convinced that nuts in the package were quite salable. According to Igor Romanov, a positive moment for the formation of demand was that in the mid-1990s, the “nut” shelves were not as crowded as they are today, there was no dominance of peanuts and hazelnuts. In 1995, the partners went to Moscow, where they sold part of the Siberian nut, and exchanged part for overseas counterparts. The expansion of the assortment became a kind of insurance for a start-up company and brought additional income.

A year later, failed geologists assessed their determination. Volumes grew, business expanded. At the same time, the company was the first among Novosibirsk firms to find out how to get a loan from the EBRD. The head of Kedr, renamed Nutsi, says that there were no difficulties in obtaining $6,000. "Of course it is risky business, work in progress in a market that is not entirely clear, - Romanov reveals the essence of the matter. “That’s why we took out a secured loan.”

Despite the risks, the company, which sold the walnut at a markup of up to 300% early in its career, quickly repaid the loan. After that, she continued to borrow money from banks. At one time, Natsy was a regular client of KMB Bank (specializes in small businesses, loans up to $500,000), but when her financial needs exceeded the bank's limit, she moved to other financial institutions.

controversial cones

Years later, the risks walnut business have not decreased. Igor Romanov even calls it wild, meaning, first of all, access to raw materials. The chapter "Natsy" points to the imperfection of the Forest Code. “Accessory forest management, which includes the walnut trade, has almost no specific regulatory framework,” says Romanov.

So, the locals, for whom this is a traditional craft, are still engaged in the collection of pine nuts. The task of the companies is to buy raw materials as efficiently as possible, which is not always possible. “There are no bulk discounts here,” explains Romanov. “If you need to buy several tons of nuts, then the cost of a kilogram increases by one and a half times compared to when you buy several kilograms.”

In order not to drive themselves into losses, Nutsy uses standard methods - they suspend purchases in one village and move to another. An additional plus of "Natsy" is that it has been working in this market for a long time and has exclusive agreements with some of the bigwigs. True, Romanov complains that the company cannot 100% tie procurers to itself, because they still look to the side in search of a better price. Natsi was unable to keep sellers even with the help of the authorities: for two years in a row it won a regional tender for the purchase of pine nuts in the Altai taiga, but even then other buyers crossed its path, offering local residents a higher price.

About 4 years ago, Chinese buyers came to the Russian taiga. Igor Romanov speaks of them as a real disaster, which is extremely difficult to deal with due to the lack of duties on the export of pine nuts. Imposing restrictions at the local level also does not work. “If in 2000 - 2001 some regions set standards or even export bans (then it was a common phenomenon, bans were also introduced on the export of grain and other foodstuffs. - Note. "Co"), but now they have stopped doing it, ”says the head of Nutsy. Neighbors have a nut processing business on a grand scale, about 90% of the entire world pine nut market is occupied by Chinese producers.

Perhaps, if not for the "Chinese expansion", then "Nutsy" would get more nuts. According to Romanov, the company has the capacity to process up to 6,000 tons of pine nuts per year. However, other "Kedroviks" do not see anything wrong with the presence of buyers from China. “We are not close to Chinese buyers, they buy nuts in the taiga themselves, but they also buy them from us,” says Alexander Kireev, head of the Moscow representative office of the Tomsk Food Company (Zhivitsa brand). - Recently, buyers from Moscow, who seriously inflate purchase prices, “break the market” much more. In winter, the price of a nut reached 45 rubles. per kg, now it is at the level of 30 rubles.

offensive plan

In the late 1990s, Igor Romanov and his companions themselves made an attempt to play on the field Chinese companies. “In 1998, we started offering the walnut to Europe, but there we were pointed to the Chinese walnut and told that the local consumer knows exactly it,” Romanov recalls. “That is, at that time they made it quite clear to us that we had no chances to engage in exports.” The company understood the hint and did not specifically look for exits abroad. A few months later Nutsy was approached by a Dutch company selling environmentally friendly clean products. Trading Organic Agricultural B.V. The foreigners made a special trip to distant Novosibirsk to make sure that Nutsi pine nuts fit into their product portfolio. The corresponding conclusion was received, as well as a certificate for sale abroad. Deliveries were carried out through an intermediary company, their total volumes reached 20 - 40 tons per year. "Natsy" sold the nut kernel not only to Holland, but also to Israel, to Spain.

However, this year the export of Nutsi pine nuts has dropped sharply. “The Dutch partner was constantly interested in our price, but he never bought anything,” says Romanov. On this score, he has an explanation, the main defendants of which, again, are Chinese suppliers, who underestimated world prices.

According to Igor Romanov, the difficulty in walnut exports lies in the fact that large Western distributors need clear delivery schedules, and our companies do not yet have a well-functioning and predictable procurement system. But here, it seems, "Nutsy" is lagging behind not the Chinese, but some of "their own". “Many people know our company, so it is not difficult for us to enter foreign markets,” says Alexander Kireev from the Tomsk Food Company. Tomsk even beat their Chinese colleagues: they take foreigners with exotics. Kireev says that his company managed to arrange deliveries of cedar cones to Germany, where they are very popular, especially around Christmas.

Igor Romanov speaks of suspended foreign deliveries without much regret. “The situation may change,” he remarks philosophically. Now he is more concerned about the domestic market. Initially, the company focused on the packaged walnut, imitating the Irish. And although, by own estimates, "Nutsy" occupies a leading position in this segment, competitors think differently. According to the brand manager of the Moscow Nut Company, Mikhail Yakimov, if Natsy is among the top three, it is only in the regions. Moreover, the area of ​​its leadership is limited to the Far East and Siberia. In the capital region, which is the most interesting market due to the solvency of buyers, Natsy is poorly represented. The reason is not only in weak distribution, but also in a large number of players. According to the estimates of Respublika Idei.ru (sale of investment projects), about 15 companies currently operate on the Moscow market. The head of Nutsy himself does not consider the situation critical. "There is certainly competition, but that's normal," says Romanov.

Now Nutsy has its own branches in major cities, including in Moscow. At the same time, deliveries of packaged peeled nuts go to stores of medium and high price segments. But while working with Moscow, the company is getting more wholesale sales. Nutsy is a fairly large supplier of raw materials to the capital region, and also sells pine nut kernels to other operators for packaging, ”says a manager of one of the nut trading companies.

Now Nutsy is hatching a plan to reorganize distribution. Regional branches, acting as internal business units, are planned to be turned into independent companies in the near future. According to the management, this will increase the interest of distributors in promoting Nutsy products.

And Novosibirsk also intends to return to where they started their business - to concentrate on the gifts of cedar. “At one time, we expanded the assortment, added many other nuts, and scattered our efforts,” explains Romanov. “As a result, it seems to me that we began to lose ground in the key pine nut segment.” These observations of Romanov are confirmed by competitors. According to Mikhail Yakimov from the Moscow Nut Company, Nutsy's main sales, at least in Moscow, are peanuts and hazelnuts, with pine nuts one of the last places. In the coming year, Natsy intends to invest the maximum amount of money in the "taiga" and increase its share in the pine nut market. Maybe the rejection of overseas nuts will just lead Novosibirsk overseas.

What is "Nutsy"

Year of foundation: 1995

Field of activity: harvesting and sale of pine nuts and products of its processing

Sales volume: $7.6 million

Strengths: proximity to the resource base, positive credit history

Weaknesses: underdeveloped distribution, low representation in Moscow

Main competitors: Tomsk Food Company, Kedrovy Bor, Moscow Nut Company, Dikorosy