July 30 2007, 13:55

Polish producers to reduce strawberry acreage

This season the producers of strawberry in many regions of Poland have failed to harvest berries because of lack of labor. Many large producers left 30% to 60% of strawberry on fields, Gazeta Wyborcza Bydgoszcz informs. The growth of the job rates for fruit harvesting and free-of-charge transport for seasonal workers failed to improve the situation.

Strawberry producers think that they should not hope for the improvement of the situation soon. That's why the majority of them reduce the cultivation areas of this crop. But, Poland retains the leading position as strawberry producer and exporter in Europe. So, even the price growth for strawberry this season and the simplified opportunities to engage seasonal workers from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus seem unable to solve the problem of the labor deficit for Polish fruit and berry growers. We'd like to mention that mostly large farmers suffer from the labor deficit.

To the opinion of the analysts of ""Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits", Ukrainian producers start to feeling similar problems too: this season the rates for strawberry harvesting reached $24-30/day.