May 31 2006, 15:05

The largest cherry producers will have no harvest in Crimea

According to information provided to "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" journal by Crimean office of the Agricultural Marketing Project, the largest cherry producers will harvest very small volumes of cherry this year in Crimea. Some of them will have no harvest at all.

Cherry was frost-injured in the period January 21st to 27th 2006. According to the data of Crimean Experimental Orchard Station, working on the basis of Ukrainian Orchard Institute, the percentage of injured trees is as follows:

Simferopol rayon - 26-98%

Bakhchisaray rayon - 15-97%

Kirovskiy rayon - 18-85%

Nizhnegorskiy rayon - 98-100%

Krasnogvardeyskiy rayon - 100%

Belogorskiy rayon - 100%

Other Crimean rayons do not possess significant cherry orchards.

At the same time, many private farms have lost significantly less cherry, according to Alexander Lekhno, the Market Information Specialist of Crimean AMP office. The private producers have younger trees of modern varieties; they better protect orchards from pests and weeds. And, many trees in yards were sheltered from wind, so that they suffered less comparing to the orchards of large producers.

Today the wholesale cherry shipments are sold for $1.17/kg and more on Simferopol wholesale market. Nowadays price is one third as less than it was a year ago.