Resort reason: in the Kuban, all beaches and a whole wine city will be opened in the summer

Kuban is approaching the tourist season — in the Krasnodar Territory they plan to open beaches for swimming and a unique wine city on the Black Sea coast. Airlines, including the state-of-the-art Gelendzhik airport complex, are preparing to receive travelers from all over the country. The day before, Vladimir Putin discussed the details of the region's development personally with Governor Veniamin Kondratiev. The entity also plays a key role in ensuring the country's food security. According to the head of the region, we should expect a good harvest this year if the weather does not let farmers down. Why the region is called the main breadbasket of Russia and how winemaking was restarted in the Kuban — in the Izvestia article.

How is Russia's main breadbasket developing

Vladimir Putin met with Veniamin Kondratiev, Governor of the Krasnodar Territory, in the Kremlin late on August 10 after a meeting on the development of AI. As always, there were a lot of issues in the spotlight, but the first thing we discussed was the sowing campaign, which is already in full swing. The President immediately stated that the Krasnodar Territory makes a significant contribution to ensuring Russia's food security.

— Thank you for your constant attention to the Krasnodar Territory, to all our problems. Of course, it is important for us to keep the Kuban the breadbasket of the country and the guarantor of food security. And this is a very honorable title, of course," Veniamin Kondratiev responded.

Krasnodar Region is the absolute leader in agricultural products. The region ranks first in the production of drinking milk, second in raw milk, and is also one of the top five in the production of vegetables, fruits, and meat. As for spring crops, farmers have already sown 96% with beetroot — the governor explained that today this crop is a priority — 15 sugar factories operate in the region. The area under sunflower trees occupies about 26%, 7% — under corn. Only 1.8 million hectares have been sown for winter crops. The region is fully supplied with fuels and lubricants and fertilizers. According to the governor, a good harvest is expected.

— We have something to be proud of today — these are seeds. We have 100% of wheat seeds — ours, domestic. 100%. It is the pride of Kuban and the country today. Rice is 100% our own, domestic seeds. Soybeans are our domestic seeds. We are approaching 50% for sunflower seeds, sugar beet, and corn. And six years ago, we had everything imported,— Veniamin Kondratiev noted.

From the second half of April, farmers will start sowing rice until mid-May. The campaign is scheduled to be completed by May 1, weather permitting. This issue remains sensitive for Kuban, as last year it significantly hit the sowing season. Vladimir Putin noted that the wheat harvest has decreased in 2025. The governor explained that the Kuban region had sunk in this crop due to frost and drought.

— Krasnodar Territory is the undisputed leader of the Russian agricultural sector. Kuban fully confirms the status of Russia's main food breadbasket," Yulia Ogloblina, Deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Agrarian Issues, told Izvestia. — As for the weather, the region is adapting. However, the climate factor requires a long-term strategy. According to the data for 2025-2026, the region provides 80% of the country's rice, 40% of all Russian grapes, 25% of sugar, and more than 500 thousand tons of fruits and berries annually. The products are exported to more than 100 countries — Iran, Turkey, China, Egypt, Israel, and the CIS countries.

The contribution of winemaking and tourism to the Kuban economy

In general, Vladimir Putin positively assessed the pace of economic development in the Krasnodar Territory. Moreover, according to Veniamin Kondratiev, it has become differentiated, meaning that income is generated by a number of industries, from resorts to the IT industry, which previously did not exist in the region at all. Now, in the last four years alone, more than 2.3 thousand IT enterprises have appeared in Kuban. If the region's GRP in 2021 was about 3 trillion rubles, then in 2025 it will be 5.8 trillion rubles. "The economy has started working," the governor emphasized.

Winemaking also played a big role — the Krasnodar Territory remains one of the key regions of Russia in this area. At the meeting, its head thanked the president for the adoption of the law on viticulture and winemaking, which entered into force in 2020. From that moment on, only wine from grapes grown in the country can be called Russian.

In general, winemaking has become an independent industry. Previously, its participants followed the rules developed for producers of strong alcohol. This obviously stimulated the Kuban industry and economy: the production of domestic grape seedlings in the Krasnodar Territory has quadrupled over the past six years, and the number of vineyards has increased by 6.5 thousand, the head of the region said. "And it's not easy to sow. This is a vine, this is a trellis, this is labor," he said.

The Bely Mys wine town, the brainchild of the ROSSIYA Group of Joint—Stock Bank, promises to become a new point of attraction in the region. This is a unique space on the shores of the Black Sea, which has no analogues either in Russia or in the world. ​The project is preparing for the start of the tourist season in 2026. There will be an enoteca with the largest collection of Russian wines from more than 200 large and small wineries, the Lev Golitsyn Wine Museum with modern multimedia exhibitions, as well as tasting rooms and restaurants. The project area is currently being actively developed and landscaped. Finishing works are underway in the museum, the bakery cafe and the cinema, and they have already been completed in the art library - all that remains is to put furniture.

— "White Cape" is a very cool project. France boasts of its Bordeaux region, and we can boast of this project. Because it is many times larger and many times more extensive than some French regions. It will be such a wine and gastronomic mecca for Russians, and at a very high level," Maya Kotlyar, founder of the MAYEL Travel travel agency, told Izvestia.

The Krasnodar Territory as a whole has the strongest side in the context of a resort holiday — a large proportion of travelers from Russia go there, the expert believes. Historically, about 12 million people go on vacation to the region. However, according to her, difficulties remain, in particular, the opening of high—quality rooms, good basic "fives" and "fours" is "delayed".

Tourism in general is the most important part of the region's economy. In particular, the president was particularly interested in the situation related to the oil and petroleum products spill in the Kerch Strait in December 2024. Then the tankers Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239, carrying about 9.2 thousand tons of fuel oil, crashed. Many resort regions were affected, as numerous inspections and elimination of the consequences of the accident were required to fully resume the tourist season. All this had a negative impact, first of all, on the bathing season. Vladimir Putin discussed with Veniamin Kondratiev how the work on this track is progressing and what are the prospects for opening beaches in the region.

This year, thanks to the support of the federal center, Anapa will again receive tourists in full, the governor assured.

— The measures that we have taken, where we, in simple terms, replace the sand by 50 cm or fill it with 50 cm where there were emissions, according to the conclusion of Rospotrebnadzor, these beaches can already be used. And where there was no fuel oil at all, these are the so—called pebble beaches, if you take from Utrish to the High coast of Anapa, we have previously, and I think that finally, approved the opening of these beaches," he said.

— So this year all the beaches of the Krasnodar Territory will be open? — the president specified.

"I think so, Vladimir Vladimirovich,— the governor replied.

The attractiveness of the region for tourists is also due to its transport accessibility. Earlier, Aeroflot reported that in 2026 it expects to triple passenger traffic to Krasnodar and Gelendzhik airports to 1.5 million people. Both reopened in 2025, after being shut down in 2022 for security reasons. In total, 500 thousand passengers were transported through Gelendzhik and Krasnodar airports last year.

The ultramodern Gelendzhik airport complex is also ready for the influx of tourists, the terminal was built in just 18 months. The protocol on the development of the air carrier was signed in February 2019 as part of the Russian Investment Forum in Sochi. Joint-stock Bank ROSSIYA and VTB became the main investors of the project. Last summer, the opening of Gelendzhik airport caused a real stir among tourists.