September 12 2006, 11:32

Less pickled tomatoes will be produced this season

The successful cucumber season decreased the interest of Ukrainian canneries to tomato pickling, the specialists inform. The market of pickled tomato is rather modest comparing to pickled cucumber market; it is 5-7 times smaller according to evaluations of the Agricultural Marketing Project. The share of tomatoes is even smaller in high price segment. In this regard, when the canneries had an opportunity to pickle more cucumbers, they readily took this advantage. As a result, the share of pickled tomatoes production was reduced.

At the same time, the experts forecast the share of pickled cherry-tomatoes to grow this season. Though, we informed earlier that the volumes of canned cherry-tomatoes have been somewhat overestimated. In 2006, in conditions of vegetable overproduction, canneries were able to get low purchase price for raw materials. So, pickled cherry-tomatoes will be quite feasible this year. Canneries paid $0.25-0.29/kg for cherry-tomatoes this year; the purchase price for this commodity reached $0.58/kg in previous years.