September 22 2006, 15:33

Ukraine becomes the leading water-melon producer in Europe

According to the preliminary data of the survey conducted by the Agricultural Marketing Project jointly with "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" journal, Ukraine has gathered the largest water-melon harvest for the five recent years. This fact helped Ukrainian exporters recover the ground lost past year on the European market of water-melons. Moreover, according to our estimations, water-melon export from Ukraine has reached top record this year. As to the preliminary estimations, water-melon export this season can exceed 20-25,000 tons.

Due to rapid growth of water-melon production, according to the assessments of the Agricultural Marketing Project, this year Ukraine will become the largest water-melon producer in Europe. As to production volumes, our country beats such countries as Greece, Spain, Serbia, and Italy. And, to the opinion of Andriy Yarmak, the Deputy Director of the Agricultural Marketing Project, Ukraine is able to be one of twelve world largest water-melon producers for the first time in the country's history.

China is the largest world producer of water-melons - this country secures nearly 74% of world production of this crop. Chinese farmers annually harvest around 55 mln. tons of water-melons. The production of this crop in China grows in average 5-7% per year. Turkey, Iran, Egypt, USA and Brazil are also among large producers. However, the production volumes fluctuate within 1.2-1.8 mln. tons/year in these countries (i.e. 30-45 times less than in China!)

Despite of the fact that Ukraine produces only half of the percent of the world water-melon production, this year our country is able to become the largest European water-melon grower and one of the hugest exporters of this commodity in the region. This fact attracts close attention to our country from the side of those foreign companies who are willing to establish direct contacts on water-melon purchase, as well as the companies - suppliers of water-melon seeds, and also foreign farmers and investors who are seriously considering the possibility to lease land in Ukraine for produce growing.

"Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" journal provides an opportunity to get more details regarding the trends of world markets of fruits and vegetables, and also related to the strategic perspectives of the production, processing and trade of produce commodities in Ukraine. The journal conducts already the third international conference-exhibition "Fruits and Vegetables of Ukraine 2006. Open market" on December 5th-6th 2006. This event traditionally gathers all leaders of the produce business in Ukraine, and also the companies from 15-20 other countries of the region. The interest to the conference-exhibition is extremely high this year: the organizers expect that the quantity of the exhibitors can reach 150 companies. More than 5 thousand people will attend the event; among them 350-400 professionals will participate in the conference, according to a conservative estimate.