Russia's Steppe agroholding plans to increase pea acreage 10% in 2025, give up imported seeds

MOSCOW. Jan 17 (Interfax) - Steppe, part of AFK Sistema , plans to increase its area under peas 10% in 2025 and has decided to reject the use of imported pea seeds.

"In 2025, the agricultural holding decided to stop using imported pea seeds in its production. In the previous season, the share of domestic pea seed material accounted for about a quarter of the total volume, and in the new agricultural season it will reach 100%," Steppe's press service said.

Peas are an important agricultural crop in the holding's production architecture, the press service said. The area under peas accounts for more than a tenth of the company's total arable land, it said. Steppe continues to steadily expand production of this crop, and plans to increase the area under peas by approximately 10% in 2025, it said.

"In recent years, there has been a trend in the agricultural market to expand areas under niche crops, including peas. This is due to their high profitability and demand in the international market," it said.

This is confirmed by other experts in the grain market, who said that the interest in niche crops is related to the decreasing profitability of wheat production. Earlier, it was reported that the company AEON Agro, owned by businessman Roman Trotsenko, plans to increase its area under lentils ten-fold in 2025.

Steppe previously managed to eliminate its dependence on imported seed supplies for crops such as sugar beet, confection and oilseed sunflower, chickpeas, flax, mustard and spring barley, and has significantly increased the share of Russian corn seeds in its production, it said. For its main crop, wheat, the holding uses only domestic seeds, including seeds of its own variety, Sistema.

Steppe's strategy of import substitution has been "consistently implemented over the past ten years," the holding's general director Andrei Neduzhko was quoted as saying.

The Steppe agricultural holding was created in 2014. It is engaged in crop production, dairy farming, agricultural product trading, sugar and grocery trading, and cheese and dairy production and distribution. Its assets are located in Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories and the Rostov region.

According to the audit and consulting company BEFL, as of June 2024, Steppe ranks sixth in the list of the largest agricultural landowners in Russia, with 578,000 hectares (together with RZ Agro).