November 17 2010, 14:16 Fruit-Inform

Not many in Russia to manage to preserve potatoes till the middle of winter

Bad yield was not the only disappointment for Russian potato producers in this season. As of today, farmers face more serious task, which is to preserve quality of produce. According to data of survey conducted by “Fruit-Inform, approximately one third of producers from Central Federal District encountered a problem of quick sprouting of tubers connected with unusually warm autumn. For the most part, it concerns storehouses lacking ventilation and refrigeration.

At the same time, more than a half of questioned do not see any special reasons to worry yet, though they do not exclude emerging of such problem, if weather does not change to cold soon.

The same situation is observed in Siberian Federal District, where, in addition to early sprouting, tubers suffer from dry rot. This disease spreads very quickly in unequipped storehouses, so producers try to sell the most part of potatoes as soon as possible, because, as to their opinion, they will hardly manage to preserve produce even till the middle of winter.

As a result, currently, there are no problems with purchase of large batches of potatoes at Russian market, although, as to assessments of wholesale companies, quality of offered produce is often not higher than average. Prices for produce stably vary within EUR 0.40-0.52/kg depending on region. Besides domestic supply, market is supplied with imported potatoes from Belarus, Kazakhstan and Netherlands. This also suppress growth of prices.

As to information of “Fruit-Inform, producers from neighboring Ukraine experience the same problems, but prices are 25% lower than at Russian market, and their range does not exceed EUR 0.32-0.37/kg.

Will Ukraine manage to become the largest exporter of potatoes to Russia in this season? How strongly will prices for produce increase in winter? What is expected for potato market of Ukraine in the following year? All these questions will be answered in course of work of the seventh international conference “Vegetables and fruit of Ukraine-2010”.

Registration of participants of the conference ends on November 23.