December 22 2006, 14:51

Ukrainian tinned cucumber export rates remain record low

Ukraine is a large exporter of tinned produce; tinned cucumbers are one of the key exporting items. Since 2001 till 2004 Ukraine has been constantly increasing the exporting volumes of tinned cucumbers. The exporting volumes have grown 2.2 times during the mentioned period of time. However, in 2005 the export has decreased one third because of poor cucumber harvests in 2004 and 2005 and high prices for this product.

The export of tinned cucumber continued reducing in 2006. During first 10 months of the current year 24% less tinned cucumbers are exported than at the same period of time in 2005. So, since 2002 Ukraine has never exported as few tinned cucumbers as in 2006.

We remind that in 2006 Ukraine had a top record cucumber harvest which increased more than 60% comparing to 2005. As a result, many canneries have doubled or even tripled the production volumes of the tinned produce. Also, many new canneries appeared in Ukraine this year. To the experts' opinion, the export of tinned produce can dramatically increase as soon as in December 2006-January 2007. At the same time, Ukrainian canneries will find it difficult to occupy the positions which have been lost during two previous years. Their market place is steadily occupied now by branded produce of Russian, Indian and Chinese origin.