July 31 2007, 08:52

Tomato paste import to Ukraine may considerably grow in 2007

According to the forecasts of ""Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" weekly", the reduction of field tomato production on 24% comparing to 2006 is expected in 2007 in Ukraine. The demand for tomatoes from the side of canneries will also significantly decline.

At the same time, the demand continues growing for tomato juice and products manufactured on the basis of tomato paste in Ukraine. However, till the present moment the majority of large producers of tomato paste in the southern regions of Ukraine, and also tomato juice producers have not started purchasing tomatoes for processing. To the opinion of Fedir Rybalko, the Specialist of vegetable production development project in the southern region of Ukraine, thinks that the main reason is a relatively low quality of tomatoes entering the markets now. And, the supply of commercial tomato is rather limited; the price gap between commercial tomatoes and freshmarket tomatoes is too large. So, right now freshmarket consumes the most part of the produced tomatoes.

To the specialist's opinion, this season we may expect the production volumes of tomato paste and tomato juice to decline in Ukraine. As a consequence, the import of tomato paste will significantly grow in 2008 in Ukraine. The analysts of "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" estimate the volume of tomato paste market to reach 100-110,000 tons per year in Ukraine. Officially 20-30,000 tons of tomato paste are annually imported; although some sources of this industry think the real volumes of tomato paste import are much higher than the officially registered. China and Uzbekistan are the largest suppliers of tomato paste to Ukraine.