April 24 2008, 08:28

Ukraine: the annual losses because of the imperfect infrastructure of the vegetable market exceed $ 3 billion

According to evaluations provided by IFC experts, the poorly developed infrastructure of the vegetable market of Ukraine results in the enormous losses of the vegetables just after harvesting. The experts of this organization estimate the total losses to amount to UAH 15 billion ($3 billion).

As a result, around 40-45% of the harvested vegetables fail to reach the consumers; around 30-35% of vegetables are lost in the process of storage and transportation by the producers and another 10% of losses are caused by the wholesale trade. So, Ukrainian vegetable growers lose up to UAH 8.2 billion, and the wholesale trade loses UAH 2.4 billion.

To compare: the losses do not exceed 20-25% in Holland. It means that Ukrainian vegetables are twofold less competitive than Dutch vegetables just because of the improper infrastructure. Naturally, Ukrainian consumer has to pay for the imperfect infrastructure in the country - the buyers have to reimburse the losses of the producers and the wholesalers.

Truly saying, Ukrainian consumers are also less economical than Dutch people. Just around 10-15% of vegetables are directly lost by the consumers in Holland; the percentage of the vegetables losses on the consumers' level reaches 25-30% in Ukraine.

To the opinion of Andriy Yarmak, the head of "Fruit-Inform" project, if the infrastructure of the vegetable market of Ukraine corresponded to European standards, Ukraine would be able to fully supply itself with vegetables and also to export the significant volumes of this product to the other countries. However, the investments of more than $ 3 billion are required right now to create such infrastructure in Ukraine.