October 22 2012, 13:01 Fito-Mag

Ukrainian apple farmers do not cope with record high production

Many Ukrainian apple farms were not ready for record high production in the country. Shortage of seasonal manpower remains a big problem for growers, as they need at least half as many seasonal workers. Apple picking rates have grown by almost 30% year-on-year in the country. Farms are ready to pay averagely UAH 130-150 (EUR 12.48-14.40) per a working day in an orchard, but a number of workers still is not enough.

An additional problem for growers is shortage of containers for picking fruits. Apple sales are rather slow this year, while picking period has shortened almost 3 times because of climatic conditions. For the present, growers from the southern regions have already finished picking winter apples. For comparison, last apples were usually picked there in early November. In connection with that, farms' storehouses are filled, and the situation will unlikely change by late October taking into account rather low activity in the internal and external apple markets.