Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
In Two Years the Fresh Salad Market Could Increase 50 Times in Ukraine!
The international practical seminar "Salads of Ukraine 2006" was held on December 8, 2005 at Kyiv National Agrarian University; more than 100 produce business specialists from 5 countries participated in this event. The participants received valuable and exclusive information about the potential of fresh salads market development. Representatives from Ukrainian, Russian, Dutch, Moldavian and Georgian companies took part in the seminar. The companies OLVITA and RIJK ZWAAN UKRAINE and Kyiv National Agrarian University organized the event in conjunction with the Agricultural Marketing Project.
OLVITA is one of the most dynamically developing companies in the Ukrainian produce business. First and foremost, it is know for frozen vegetables, fruits and berries sold under the "Olvita" trademark. But, OLVITA has recently entered the market of fresh salads with its very own trademark, as this market is considered to be very attractive.
The company enjoys a complex of modern storage facilities for effective long-term produce storage. This is why OLVITA is now able to participate in the wholesale trading of fresh fruits and vegetables where there is a great demand from Ukrainian supermarkets. Yuri Boguslavskiy, OLVITA Director, indicated they plan to significantly increase storage capacity for fresh produce. In addition, they plan to build a complex for the post harvest handling and packing of salads, which will be supplied by farmers from different regions throughout Ukraine.
During the seminar professionals shared information about the specifics of production technologies, handling, storage and packaging of fresh salads, which are popular worldwide. Dr. Robert Lee, Director of the Agricultural Marketing Project, stated the size of the world salad market is about $10.5 billion. China produces more than half of the gross volume and the USA and China combined provide for about 70% of the world's salad production. The Ukrainian salad market has only started to develop and in Dr. Lee's opinion, it will grow dynamically in the near future. "Even if Ukrainians eat half the salads of people in the US, this market will reach the volume of 300,000 tons, compared to 6,000 tons of salads produced now in the country", Dr. Lee stated.
We would like to point out that there are professional producers of fresh salads in Ukraine and the number is growing each year, despite of the fact that salad production is a complicated business. Ukraine also exports fresh salads to Russia. The climate of our country lets farmers produce salads in different regions throughout the entire season. This is why the potential to increase salad production is not limited by the interior market. According to evaluations of the Agricultural Marketing Project, in the next five years the size of Ukrainian salad market could increase up to between $50-60 million and this creates fantastic opportunities for farmers and other market players.