August 14 2006, 13:22

Poor vegetable harvest in Europe means good news for Ukrainian and Russian producers

According to information provided by the EU countries, extremely hot summer and lack of rainfalls resulted in considerable losses to the agricultural producers. Farmers - vegetable producers suffered the most as they lost a significant part of harvest. Hydrophilic vegetables and berries have suffered the most.

For example, not all (and not even the majority) of Polish farmers have drip irrigation; though Poland is one of the leaders of produce growing and export in Europe. Dry summer 2006 caused the greatest losses to the producers of such crops as potato, cabbage (white, red cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli), carrot, tomato, lettuce, fresh herbs, green pea, onion, raspberry, black and red currant, blueberry, etc.

According to information of the Agricultural Marketing Project, at present moment the prices for vegetables are quite lower in Ukraine than in Poland - and it is a very untypical situation. The most significant price difference is observed for squash (this product is 7-8 times more expensive in Poland than in our country), water-melon (3-4 times more expensive in Poland), egg-plant and pepper (two-threefold), garlic (two-threefold), cucumber (1.5-2 times more expensive), tomato (50-60% higher price). It is also known that the price for bulb onion is one third higher in Poland now; but Poland traditionally supplied onion to Ukrainian market. And, the price difference can substantially grow soon.

It is also worth mentioning that the prices for other root crops are also higher in Poland than in our country: potato is 25% more expensive; red beets - 35%, carrot - nearly twofold expensive. The prices for cabbage are also higher in Poland.

So, there is a good opportunity for Ukraine to introduce itself on European freshmarket, and also processing market. In particular, there is information about first large shipments of Ukrainian canned produce to the EU markets. This situation is likely to keep high fruit and vegetable prices on markets of Ukraine and Russia, so that local producers could consolidate their position.

The detailed information about the perspectives of produce markets in Russia, Ukraine and European Union will be presented during the first international conference "Produce Business in Russia 2006" to be held October 17th-19th 2006 in Moscow. More details will be soon available on www.lol.org.ua site and from the specialists in the central office of the Agricultural Marketing Project, and Informational Agency "APK-Inform".