September 1 2006, 11:28

Tomato sales are complicated for Odesa producers

Odesa producers of industrial tomatoes have recently started active harvesting of this commodity. They experience serious difficulties selling the harvested produce. According to the producers' evaluations, average tomato yield significantly increases the past year data, more than 20%. The considerably greater tomato shipments have already resulted in long queues of vehicles loaded with tomatoes near the processing enterprises. The purchase price decreased down to $0.05/kg. The producers say, this price is 20% lower than they had in the past season. Only large producers are able to sell tomatoes for higher prices up to $0.06/kg due to preliminary signed contracts with the processors. The first-bud tomatoes are harvested now; the yield of these commodities is expected to be lower then the next harvested tomatoes because of weather and phytosanitary conditions. So, we can expect that the volumes of tomatoes shipped on market will grow further unless rainfalls interfere.