December 21 2006, 09:47

In 2006 Ukraine threefold increased tomato export; import is totally "grey"

According to information of the official statistics, the volumes of the external tomato trade have significantly increased in Ukraine in 2006. Officially Ukraine remained the net exporter of tomatoes, as exporting volumes exceeded importing volumes 3.9 times.

During first 10 months of the current year Ukraine has exported more than 12 thousands tons of tomatoes worth to the total sum of $5.8 mln. Only 3,100 tons of tomatoes worth to $1.1 mln were imported. So, the export of the first 10 months of 2006 exceeded 3.2 times the export during the whole 2005. The import has increased 2.9 times during the same period of time. All exporting Ukrainian tomatoes were supplied to Russia and Belarus. Moldova, Turkey, Spain, Azerbaijan and Egypt were the main suppliers of fresh tomatoes to Ukrainian market.

At the same time, the experts doubt if this information is objective. For example, the import in December 2005-January 2006 was only 729 tons of produce according to the official statistics. In this period of time none of Ukrainian greenhouse complexes grows tomatoes. Also, tomatoes can't be stored for a long time. So, it turns out to be that an average Ukrainian consumer ate less than 1 gram of tomatoes a day during this period of time. Or, one tomato per dozen of people was consumed during the mentioned period.

According to the most conservative estimates, Kyiv along demands not less than 3,000 tons of greenhouse tomatoes per month in winter. Taking into account the needs of the whole Ukraine, the scale of contraband tomato supplies to Ukraine is obvious. The same situation is observed with cucumber and other vegetable supplies. To our regret, the supplies of greenhouse vegetables from Turkey and other countries without custom fees and taxes payments seriously affect the greenhouse industry of Ukraine. At the same time our country suffers from price growth for gas and electricity.

That's why the analysts of "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" journal are sure that Ukraine is and will stay a large net importer of tomatoes in the coming years. Moreover, the volumes of greenhouse vegetables import will grow faster than exporting volumes.