May 11 2007, 11:00

Ukraine: less vegetables but more potatoes are planted

The State Statistics Committee informed ""Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" that as of early May 34% more potato have been planted comparing to the same date in 2006. At the same time, the rates of vegetable planting were 1-2% behind the past year dates.

The planting campaign has not been over yet; despite of this fact, the urgent information confirms the forecasts done by the "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" journal analysts. Mid April they forecasted the potato cultivation areas to increase 7% and vegetable acreage to decrease 3% in the country. To the opinion of the Manager of "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" project, in addition to the acreage growth the faster rates of potato planting are also caused by earlier dates of the campaign this warm spring. At the same time, vegetable planting campaign lags behind the past year schedule despite of the warmer spring; this is the evidence of the significantly reduced vegetable cultivation areas.

We remind that you can order the detailed forecast of the cultivation areas, yield and production for major vegetables, fruits, berries and cucurbit crops in Ukraine in 2007, including the evaluation of the price perspectives for these crops in season 2007/08, via email: [email protected] of "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" journal. The forecast costs 2,000 UAH for the journal subscribers and 2,200 UAH for other interested persons.