Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
Ukraine: farmers from Donetsk and Luhansk Regions forced to suspend field works due to military operations
According to Fruit-Inform, the majority of fruit and vegetable growers from Donetsk and Luhansk Regions of Ukraine had to suspend their planned field works due to military operations there.
Some farmers say of no electricity and industrial water supply due to damaged power transmission lines and are unable to switch on cold chambers, conduct irrigation, plant protection operations and apply fertilizers.
«We had to draw agricultural machinery from fields under mortar fire», says a farmer from Luhansk Region. «Furthermore, the reports of field works vehicles thefts with the involvement of gunmen are more and more frequent».
Local farmers say that plantations in some districts of Donetsk and Luhansk Regions resemble battlefields rather than farmlands: ground is pockmarked with craters after the fire, and soldiers place their military equipment in the fields.
Meanwhile, farmers near Mariupol say of no active military operations but face problems with sales of their produce: local market activity is not high, and retail chains do not want to send their vehicles to the anti-terrorist operation zone.
«Our field works are conducted in time, we have stable electricity and water supply, but face serious problems with sales of our products», says a local farmer. «Retail chains' employees refuse to come to load our produce due to more frequent attacks on checkpoints, therefore we have to risk and ship products to Donetsk ourselves. Moreover, there are known cases that vehicles are simply taken by gunmen».