December 12 2006, 11:19

Ukrainian production of fruits and vegetables evidences outstripping growth rate

World produce growing has increased more than twice during the recent quarter of a century, according to information shared by Robert Lee, the Director of the Agricultural Marketing Project while reporting on the third international conference "Fruits and Vegetables of Ukraine 2006. Open Market". In 1980 the global production of fruits and vegetables was 0.62 billion tons; by 2003 the production has increased up to 1.32 billion tons. Supposedly, the production will be 1.47 billion tons in 2006. Vegetable production is growing faster than fruit production: in 1985 vegetables constituted 57% of the gross production, in 2005 - around 65% of the gross production of fruits and vegetables.

The growth of fruit and vegetable production is recorded mostly in the developing countries; it is stable or tends to decline in the developed countries. The technology level depends much on the economic development of a country. The level of technique is significantly lower in the developing countries with low-cost labor.

Taking into account the annual production growth of 4% worldwide, Ukraine possesses production resources to outrun the mentioned growth indices (Ukraine's production growth has been up to 11% in recent years). Ukraine is able to become a valuable world supplier. However, Ukrainian producers should be ready to face the growing labor costs; they should timely apply new production technologies to stay competitive. Ukrainian producers will need not only to produce more, but also to add value, to correspond to the changing preferences of the consumers.

In this regard Mr. Lee sees the opportunity to develop organic production, improve packing and produce distribution practices. Ukrainian firms will have to grow through merging or integration (both horizontally and vertically); cooperative creation or any other methods with accumulate farmers' and traders' power on market.