Relevance. The structure of the food market is represented by various types of products, of which the largest share is taken by the fruit and vegetable sector. In the conditions of a tense political situation in the world and the establishment of barriers in foreign trade, agriculture is a strategically important branch of the Russian economy. Today, the fruit and vegetable sector of the Russian economy does not fully satisfy the needs of the population for vegetables and fruits. This is evidenced by the fact that the domestic market does not provide the population with high-quality vegetables and fruits, creates favorable conditions for filling it with foreign goods, which constitute about 35% of the consumer basket of Russians. All this leads to the need for additional analysis to identify trends in the development of the Russian market for fruits and vegetables and to identify priority areas for its development.Methods. The purpose of the article is to conduct an analysis of the main trends in the development of the Russian fruit and vegetable market, in order to determine the priority areas of its operation. The basis of the study was the statistical data of the customs authorities of the Russian Federation on the import and export of fruits and vegetables, as well as the federal service of state statistics on the volumes of production and consumption of fruits and vegetables in Russia.Results. As a result of the analysis of the state of the fruit and vegetable market in Russia in 2011-2018, carried out in the article. It can be stated that the population is experiencing a shortage of consumption of fruits and vegetables. Over the past eight years, imports exceeded exports in the structure of commodity circulation of fruits and vegetables, which indicates the dependence of the national market on foreign goods. The state of the fruit and vegetable market is influenced by the following factors: the level of development of the logistics infrastructure, material and technical equipment of enterprises, as well as the presence of sanctions and counter sanctions.

Dagestan is the largest region with irrigation system of agriculture in Russia. Irrigated lands provide 70% of total plant production. The field cultivation is carried on arable land in plain region of the republic. The drip irrigation as an ecologically safe technology for watering is regarded as major means for vegetable production farming. This approach maintains the propitious level of water and air in the soil without surface and deep drainage of irrigating water. These irrigated lands are expected to be used first of all for valuable and profitable crops such as tomato that is a leading crop in Dagestan. The experimental work was carried out at OOO ‘Dagagrocomplex’, Aleksandro-Nevskoye, in Tarumovskiy region. The aim of the study was to determinate the optimal dose of mineral fertilizers and the way of their application to improve the productivity without quality loss. The complex analysis of the technology for tomato production under drip irrigation through nontransplanting culture showed its high efficiency, because volume and quality of yield directly depended on soil moisture and precise supporting of mineral nutrition rates. The maximal yield of tomato fruits, 88.7-94.5 t/ha was observed with once mineral fertilizer application at a dose of N180P135K60 with soil humidity 70-80% (field moisture capacity), and also at the dose of N180P135K60 with basic application of N100 in nutrition rate. The result of the study showed that the optimization of two factors, namely soil water rate and mineral nutrition, enabled to produce additionally 39.2 t/ha. It was shown the tight connection between yielding and its quality; when yielding 95 t/ha, the increased contents of dry matter to 7.01%, sugar to 3.8% vitamin C to 18.46% were noticed. The high quality of produced output was supported by pre-watering threshold of moisture at 75-80% (field moisture capacity), when once fertilizer application at a dose of N180P135K60.

The article presents the results of long-term studies of evaluating of different types of pumpkins at their cultivation in the conditions of the Moscow region. The difference among the types of pumpkins based on the yield of fruits, seeds, as well as the number and weight of fruit per plant was found. Varieties and hybrids with high yield of fruits and seeds were selected.

Kiwano plants, or horned cucumber (Cucumis metuliferus E. Mey ex Naudin) was grown in the open field in several experimental plots in the south of West Siberia (54,95025 N, 83,09763 E). Fruits production was correlated with night air temperature sum and soil organic matter content, reaching the maximum of 2.7 kg (fresh phytomass) per plant. Fruit size and some basic juice characteristics were similar to those of kiwano fruits grown elsewhere in the world. The vegetative phytomass grown was correlated with day air temperature sum, being practically independent of soil chemical properties. Thus kiwano can be recommended as a crop to be grown in the open field in the south of West Siberia and other regions of Russia with similar soil and environmental conditions.

In the process of improving crop varieties, an essential role belongs to the fruit quality, which is expressed by biological and nutritional value of raw material used in fresh or processed condition, Plant disease resistance, high productivity, good morphological and other agricultural features are also important. We have presented the results of technical evaluation of five varieties of pumpkin (Maslicinaia 75, Gleisdorfer olkurbis, frown Prince F1) are grown in the Republic of Moldova. The chemical, physical and technical indexes of fresh pumpkin depending on the variety were investigated. According to the results the variety of products obtained from processing pumpkin (nectars, marinades, candied fruits, pumpkin seed oil) was selected.

Introduction. The relevance of the work is due to the need to find ways to preserve the nutrient composition of vitamins and other necessary raw materials to create finished food products that can diversify the diet of astronauts, taking into account their habitat.   Goal – Comparison of methods for dehydrating plant materials and creating finished food products with a certain degree of dehydration, recommended for feeding astronauts. These methods were used to produce so-called “frips” from fresh fruits and berries; this is a type of snack that is also widely used and developed in modern industry.   Objects and methods of research. The objects of the study were several types of fruits and berries of various varieties (minimum 2) during dehydration by several types of drying.   Results. Dehydration using the LTVD (low temperature vacuum drying) method makes it possible to obtain finished products with a given final moisture content, and the product can be made from multi-component raw materials. The duration of the dehydration process using the LTVD method compared to the VFD (vacuum freeze drying) method is reduced by approximately 10-20 % depending on the product, while due to the absence of preliminary freezing, the specific energy costs for drying a food object can presumably be reduced by 15-25 %. Quality indicators of the finished dry product The product dried using the presented methods is comparable, the content of vitamins and microelements is at almost the same level, therefore, when choosing the type of drying, we can recommend the LTVD method as less energy-consuming. The yield of marketable products in the production of frips ranges from 15.0 to 19.5 % by weight of the initial raw materials, which meets the requirements for economic efficiency of production.

Relevance. One of the most important directions in the breeding and variety study of fruits, in particular domestic plum European, is the breeding of cultivars with high commercial and consumer qualities of fruits. In this regard, the assessment of some commercial and consumer qualities of fruits in plum cultivars of the RRIFCB gene pool was of great practical and scientific interest. Material and methods. As objects of research, we used 8 plum cultivars of the RRIFCB gene pool and a control cultivar of the RRIFCB breeding Bolkhovchanka. The studies were carried out on the basis of the laboratory of breeding and variety study of stone fruit crops of RRIFCB in 2015-2019. Determination of color, shape, average weight, taste, size of fruit, size and shape of the stone, density of pulp, separation and length of the stalk, color of the juice were carried out in accordance with the "Program and methodology for the variety study of stone fruit crops" and "Pomology". Results. Most of the studied plum cultivars from the gene pool of the Russian Research Institute for Fruit Crops Breeding have valuable commercial and consumer qualities of fruits, which will allow them to be used in further breeding for this trait. Cultivars Californiyskaya krupnaya, Zarechnaya rannyaya, Volgogradskaya can be recommended for further use in breeding as sources of high fruit mass. Cultivars Californiyskaya krupnaya and Bolkhovchanka can be recommended for further use in breeding as sources of high pulp content in fruits and fruit sizes. On the basis of the tasting assessment of the fresh fruits, the fruits of the cultivar Volgogradskaya stood out positively.

The main arm of the each producer is to preserve vegetables and then to use them completely. That is why it is important to study the storage longevity of tomato fruits collected by harvesting machine affecting on the quality of final products.