June 26 2007, 09:22

Ukraine will be one of a few European countries where sour cherry harvest increases in 2007

Ebronisze.pl informs with the reference to Agra Net that sour cherry harvest 2007 may significantly decline in Europe, so that the prices for this fruit may rapidly grow. In particular, sour cherry production may decline 50-60% down to just 80-90,000 tons in Poland. The processors are expected to pay around $0.6/kg for sour cherry this year; this sum is 20-30% higher than a year ago. And, purchase prices may possibly be even higher. The general production of sour cherry in the leading countries - sour cherry producers, in particular Poland, Hungary, Germany, Czech Republic and the countries of former Yugoslavia will hardly exceed 240 thousands of tons, i.e. harvest 2007 will be 40% lower than a year ago, when 380,000 tons of sour cherry were harvested.

At the same time, the analysts of ""Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" journal" forecast the 45-50% growth of sour cherry production in Ukraine comparing to the previous year. According to the experts' evaluations, the gross harvest of sour cherry will amount to 142 thousands of tons this year, that is a little bit lower than the average harvest in the previous years. But for spring frosts, sour cherry harvest in Ukraine in 2007 might exceed 200,000 tons, because sour cherry cultivation areas go on extending in the country.