March 9 2006, 11:52

Ukrainian canneries are ready to purchase unlimited volumes of cucumbers

According to the information provided by the Agricultural Marketing Project (AMP) to "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" weekly journal, in 2006 canneries plan to purchase much more cucumber compared to the previous season. A steadily increasing demand on canned products with pickled cucumbers has plants making great efforts for raw materials search. In 2004 and 2005 cucumber production could not satisfy plants' needs; in this regard many plants processed only a little more than a half of the planned volumes. Cucumber shortage in 2004-2005 was caused, in particular, by poor cucumber harvest as a result of unfavorable weather conditions. If the weather is more favorable to this crop in 2006, the AMP experts think that cucumber production can grow 30-40%, taking into account the prognosed acreage extension. However, even such croppage growth will not cover the enterprises' needs, especially in the regions known for the severe competition for raw materials. For example, in Zakarpattya more than dozen canneries are either working or just have started to work. They all process cucumber, and the demand will not be satisfied, cause the plants have increased 10-30% their capacity and processing plans. Past year even the most successful enterprises were able to fulfill the plans not more than 80%, so Zakarpattya producers can guarantee the produced cucumber to be sold. The majority of the purchase managers say that the enterprises are ready to purchase unlimited cucumber volumes, so they express concerns about the possibilities to purchase the needed volumes of raw materials.

Cucumber shortage makes the processors transport raw materials from the other regions of Ukraine and even from the other countries. Many Zakarpattya processors purchase cucumber from the neighboring Lviv oblast, southern regions of Ukraine; significant volumes of processed cucumber are produced in India.