October 8 2004, 12:12 UNIAN

Grape harvest in Ukraine this year will be lesser on 40% than past year - expert's opinion

Grape harvest in Ukraine this year will be lesser on 40% than past yea harvest, to the opinion of Vitaliy Babynin, chairman of the board, Opened Stock Company "Koblevo".

"This is my subjective opinion. It is difficult to be objective cause this year some farms are totally failed to produce grape, and the other ones have wonderful harvest", - he noted.

Speaking about harvest on "Koblevo" company vineyards, V. Babynin said that grape suffered from rains this year. It led to expense increase for vineyard protection assets, but let them fully save harvest.

V. Babynin also mentioned that company started harvesting time a month later than it was past year - not on the August 26th but on the September 20th. He added that they were waiting till grape would gain all quality requirements.