October 6 2006, 10:36

Lettuce production and consumption will continue to dynamically grow

Confirming the forecasts done by the analysts of the Agricultural Marketing Project in the beginning of the season, the volumes of lettuce production have increased several times in Ukraine this year. This information is confirmed by the companies - seed suppliers, producers, wholesale and retail trade enterprises. However, the production and consumption of lettuce commodities is still on a rather low level comparing to the countries of Western Europe and USA. The thing is, the lettuce market has just started to develop in Ukraine.

This crop is still new for the producers, so the technologies have not been worked out quite well. As a result, this season unfavorable weather conditions seriously influenced the lettuce supply. In this regard both deficit and overproduction were observed on market from time to time as some lettuce producers could not sell a part of harvested commodities.

To the opinion of Elena Tarasenko, the Specialist of Marketing and Logistics, RIJK ZWAAN company (one of the leaders among vegetable and lettuce seed suppliers on Ukrainian market), the upward dynamics of lettuce production will be at least preserved, or even increased next year. The growth of lettuce consumption, both fresh and processed, will contribute to the mentioned situation. Some companies have already showed the interest to lettuce processing.