March 17 2006, 10:27

Crimean farmers give up producing tomatoes and switch to cucumbers

According to information provided to "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" journal by Alexander Lekhno, the Market Information Specialist of Crimean office, Agricultural Marketing Project, the survey of vegetable production perspectives in Crimea in 2006 proved that local farmers plan to decrease tomato acreage 20-30%. This trend is observed on the background of the first large tomato processors, which appeared past year in Crimea and are ready to purchase large tomato volumes this season.

To A. Lekhno opinion, Crimea is one of the five most deficit regions of Ukraine regarding tomato production. Despite of the favorable weather conditions, this region suffers from lack of water for irrigation, rather high labor cost; and, modern mechanical technologies are rarely applied for tomato production. As a result, local tomato producers find it difficult to compete with Kherson oblast farmers which have been specializing on this crop for many years. Nevertheless, Crimean farmers do not want to give up tomato production completely, banking on quality table varieties and hybrids of much higher wholesale and retail prices compared to the technical tomato varieties.

It is interesting to mention that cucumber gains more popularity in Crimea, though this crop is untypical for the region. Past year production experience of early and late cucumber varieties turned out to be the most successful. In 2005 cucumber production in the open ground let Crimean farmers gather harvest till mid October, at that time cucumber prices were steadily growing in the major Ukrainian regions in connection of the finished harvesting period. However, cucumber is more niche than traditional crop for Crimea.