July 9 2007, 09:02

Ukraine keeps leading position as for cucumber acreage in Europe

According to information of ""Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" weekly", Ukraine still keeps the leading position among European countries as for cucumber acreage despite of the dramatically reduced cultivation areas of this crop in 2007. The analysts of "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" forecast that 44-46,000 of hectares of field cucumbers only have been planted in 2007. And, more than a thousand of hectares of cucumbers are grown in greenhouses and film forcing frames. The average acreage of field cucumber constituted 55,000 ha in the pervious 8 years in Ukraine.

According to European Statistics (probably, because of lack of knowledge in geography, Turkey was included to the estimations, and Ukraine was not), the total cucumber cultivation area is around 46,000 ha in Turkey (product is mostly grown in film forcing frames). Polish producers grow cucumbers on around 20,000 ha, Romanian and Spanish producers cultivate 5-10,000 ha of cucumbers. According to estimation of European Statistics, Croatia planted 4,500 ha of cucumbers this year; however, the cucumber acreage was significantly smaller before in this country. Italy, Greece, Bulgaria and Hungary are also among the large cucumber producers; they have about 2,000 ha of cucumbers each.

""Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" informs, cucumber producers have faced this year numerous problems, related to plant protection from pests and diseases, which are active after warm winter in Ukraine. So, most probably, the decline of field cucumber harvest in Ukraine will be even more dramatic than the reduction of cucumber cultivation areas.