April 13 2007, 11:46

Sales of expensive hybrid seeds of vegetable crops may decrease for the first time in several years

According to information provided to ""Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" journal" by Sergey Strokan, the Private Consultant of the produce business, the sales volumes for the quality hybrid seeds of vegetable crops of foreign selection may decline for the first time this year in Ukraine. In particular, such trend is vivid in the central regions of Ukraine: the local offices of the foreign suppliers of expensive hybrid seeds have failed to fulfill the sales plan for the current year which envisaged a significant sales growth. They have even been unable to reach the sales level performed in the pervious year.

Sergey Strokan says that the decline in sales was the most evident for hybrid onion seeds - this product got much expensive as a result of the huge demand in Europe. According to his information, the farmers are actively turning to the national variety named "Khaltsedon" which provides a satisfactory quality and is well stored if the producers adhere to the technologies. The decrease of the expensive hybrid seeds is observed for the other traditional crops of the region, such as cabbage, table beet, carrot and cucumber.

To the opinion of Sergey Strokan, the main reasons are the declined income of the vegetable growers past year as a consequence of the low prices for vegetables; the overall reduction of vegetable cultivation areas; the impossibility to implement the whole technological cycle for the expensive hybrid seeds of vegetables, reported by most farmers. To pay off the cost of the hybrid seeds (to have higher yield and better quality which let the farmers get the higher price having the comparable production cost), the growers should apply the precision drill, drip irrigation system, the fine tuned plant protection system and a modern vegetable storage. Otherwise, bearing higher expenses, the farmers feel like they sell the vegetables, produced from the more expensive hybrid seeds, for almost the same price as their neighbors do, who sell the produce grown from the cheap variety seeds of the national selection.

Andriy Yarmak, the Analyst of "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" journal, says that the sales of the hybrid seeds may significantly decline in the western regions of Ukraine and in Crimea as well. According to the expert's forecast, the sales of the hybrid seeds of vegetable crops will decline the least in the southern and eastern oblasts of Ukraine.

You can get the details of the perspective changes of the vegetable cultivation areas in 2007, as well as the forecast of vegetable and fruit production and prices from the survey "The production and price forecast for fruits and vegetables in 2007". The brief summary of the survey will be available to the subscribers of "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" journal as soon as next week. To obtain the full version of the survey (the cost is UAH 2,000 for the journal subscribers and UAH 2,200 for others), please contact Maxim Yenchenko per e-mail: [email protected].