August 15 2006, 12:23

Wholesale price for potato grew up to $0.39/kg in Zakarpattya because of rainfalls

The wholesale price for potato grew up to $0.39-0.43/kg in Uzhgorod rayon, Zakarpattya oblast, according to information of Zakarpattya office, Agricultural Marketing Project provided to "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" journal. This is the price for small wholesale shipments up to 500 kg. Large wholesale shipments are absent as large farmers stopped selling potato for a while. The reason for such situation is bad weather. Potato harvesting is mechanical in most large farms; it is not effective during rainfalls. Small farmers pick up potato manually, so the price for such commodity is higher too. The retail price was $0.39-0.49/kg on Uzhgorod markets.

However, the wholesale price for potato is expected to go down to the previously observed level $0.29/kg by the end of week. The weather has already improved and let the producers speed up potato harvesting process.

And, rains will benefit late potato varieties and help increase gross harvest, to the opinion of Roman Salo, the coordinator of Zakarpattya office, Agricultural Marketing Project. Potato import to the oblast can be expected to decrease this fall. We'd like to remind that potato harvest was poor past year in the region. Potato deficit was covered by supplies from other oblasts, Volyn oblast in particular.