January 23 2008, 09:39

Northern Osetia planted 276 hectares of hazelnut in 2007

Past year the agricultural enterprises of the Republic planted 367 hectares of perennial plants, including 53 hectares of fruit orchards, 276 hectares of nuts orchards (hazelnut) and 38 hectares of berries. These figures have already exceeded the benchmarks stipulated in the program of orchard development in Northern Osetia.

Nevertheless, there are almost no orchards in the Republic which meet the modern requirements. Nursery farms "Digorskiy" and "Sadoviy" do not work on the production of fruit and berry seedlings much, so that large volumes of such seedling are imported from the other regions to the Republic. Because of the low level of agri-machinery and absence of the required management the orchards are almost lost in collective farm "Druzhba" of Prigorodniy district, the farm named after Lenin, Kirovskiy district, collective farm "Tsrau" of Alagirskiy district and "Razdzog" farm of Pravoberezhniy district, the nursery farm "Osetia" of Prigorodniy district and the collective farm named after Leniskiy Komsomol of Irafskiy district.

Such situation is one of the reasons why considerable amounts of fruits are supplied to the Republic from the other regions. According to the Ministry of Economics of the Republic, the share of imported fruits is up to 85% on the markets of Northern Osetia.

According to the data of "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" project, nut and fruit orchards represent one of the perspective trends in the fruit & vegetable industry of Ukraine. We'd like to remind that "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" invites everybody interested in the development of nuts business to participate in the first international forum "Perspective trends of fruit & vegetable business 2008: Commercial nuts orchards" to be held on the 31st of January in Kyiv. The most important issues of nuts production and sales will be considered during this forum. Responding to the initiative of several companies, the issue of the creation of the National Association of Nuts Business of Ukraine is included to the program.

As of today, the potential investors, farmers, the largest producers and suppliers of nut seedlings, and also large wholesale companies - nuts importers and exporters of Ukraine, Moldova, France and Georgia have already confirmed their participation in the forum. The application form for participation in the event is here.