October 9 2006, 12:13

In 2006 Ukraine exported and imported a top record quantity of tomatoes

During first eight months of 2006 Ukraine has exported 8,500 tons of tomatoes. This quantity is 2.2 times larger than in 2005. Most shipments were delivered in July and August, 3,800 and 3,000 tons respectively. All export supplies were performed to only two countries - to Russia (5,500 tons) and to Belarus (3,000 tons). It is worth mentioning that Baltic countries disappeared from the supply geography of Ukraine - a quite great quantity of greenhouse tomatoes were exported to these countries earlier.

To the experts' opinion, the increased tomato export from Ukraine is bounded to two factors: the increased tomato production in our country and low prices for this commodity. A withdrawal of the permit to supply small shipments of vegetables to Russian Federation by physical entities played its role too.

Tomato import has increased too, even more significantly. During first eight months in 2005 568 tons of tomatoes have been supplied to Ukraine. This year the figure has increased 5.5 times up to 3,134 tons. The main imported shipments are relatively uniformly distributed from January till June. As before, Turkey remains the main tomato supplier.

Does Ukraine have the opportunities to further increase tomato export? Are there possibilities to enter the EU markets? How will the price increase for fuel influence the competitiveness of Ukrainian greenhouse tomatoes on the external market? The participants of the conference "Fruits and Vegetables of Ukraine-2006. Open Market" will try to respond to these questions.