August 28 2007, 08:51

Ukraine rapidly increased tomato export in the first half 2007

According to the data provided by "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" weekly, in the first half of the current year Ukraine has exported record volumes of greenhouse tomatoes. Our country built the supplies two and a half times up comparing to the previous year. The same as in the previous years, the products were exported starting from March; exceptionally greenhouse tomatoes were shipped.

Within the period March to June Ukraine has exported around 4,200 tons of greenhouse tomatoes this year. To compare: in 2001-2005 tomato export constituted 0.4 thousands of tons in average in the first half of the calendar year. To the opinion of the experts of "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits", the development of greenhouse business in Ukraine leads to the growth of greenhouse vegetable production on the large modern enterprises; it also has an impact on the displacement of the production from the low-productive energy-consuming greenhouses. In the attempt to diversify the supplies, large companies are searching for sales channels in Ukraine and abroad despite of the fact that the national market is far from being saturated with greenhouse products, to the analysts' opinion.

Russia remains the main importer of Ukrainian greenhouse tomatoes; 90% of export was allocated to this country in 2007. The rest of the supplied tomato volumes were shipped to Belarus. This trend is predetermined by the fact that Russian greenhouse tomatoes consider tomato production as unprofitable; they prefer growing cucumber, lettuce, fresh herbs and flowers. Taking into consideration the growth of interest of Russian buyers to greenhouse vegetables of Ukrainian origin, the export shipments of greenhouse tomato may possibly grow in summer months in Ukraine. There may be a limiting factor, such as relatively high price for the field tomatoes and the higher inner price for greenhouse tomatoes as a consequence.

You can learn about the details of the greenhouse business perspectives in Ukraine and Russia during the international conferences ""Fruit&Vegetable Business of Russia 2007", to be held on October 23rd-25th 2007 on the territory of "Expocenter" in Moscow, and "Fruits and Vegetables of Ukraine 2007. Meeting New Leader", to be conducted on December 4th-6th 2007 on the territory of "Expocenter of Ukraine" in Kyiv.