February 22 2012, 16:25 Fruit-Inform

Quality is the main obstacle to Ukrainian potato and vegetable exports to Middle East

Relatively expensive freight is not an obstacle to Ukraine's development of potato and vegetable exports to the Middle East. The main problem is to make up a large consignment of export-quality produce.

“The Middle East countries' production of potatoes and vegetables is limited by soil and climatic conditions, therefore these countries show a permanent demand for imports. At the same time, the Middle East companies have rather high requirements to the quality: produce must be at least graded, packed, washed and with smooth surface. It is hard to find produce of such a quality in Ukraine even during the season of overproduction. Moreover, it is even harder to make up an export consignment of 12,500 tonnes at least once a month”, Tetiana Getman, Head of Fruit-Inform, said at the 4th International Conference “Potatoes and Vegetables of Ukraine – 2012”.

“Ukraine's potato and vegetable sector is short of post-harvesting lines (washing, sorting, etc.), therefore, unfortunately, none of Ukrainian farms is able to make up such a consignment quickly. Furthermore, Ukrainian farmers do not hurry to combine their efforts”, the expert added.

Nevertheless, she noted that exports would be at the center of Ukrainian producers' attention in the nearest time, as they have no other way out of the current situation due to the internal market being rather limited in volume.

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