June 15 2006, 10:09

Nearest neighbors of Ukraine significantly increased water-melon import

The countries - neighbors of Ukraine increased 86% water-melon import in 2000 to 2004 years, according to results of survey conducted by the Agricultural Marketing Project. Belarus, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Moldova, Slovakia. Slovenia, Romania and Russia totally imported 344,000 tons of water-melons in 2004.

Poland, Russia and Lithuania were the largest water-melon importers to Ukraine; they supplied 266,000 tons of this commodity during one year. Practically all countries increased water-melon import; Bulgaria managed to increase import eight-fold. Moldova imported less than 1,000 tons of water-melon in 2004, the smallest volume among the enumerated countries.

Hungary, Spain, Greece, and Russia are the main water-melon suppliers to the mentioned countries. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan supply large shipments of water-melons to Russia. Ukraine occupies 11th place among water-melon suppliers to the mentioned countries; the country exported 11,500 tons in 2004.

The specialists think Ukraine has good chances to strengthen its position and occupy leading place as water-melon supplier both to the mentioned states and other European countries. Low production cost of water-melon on the South of Ukraine, and, favorable geographic position of Ukraine contribute to that.

The survey of potential export opportunities for Ukrainian water-melons will be published in the next issues of "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" journal.