November 22 2002, 15:01 APK-Inform

Ukraine's soybeans have good chance to win European market

A round table meeting on soybean production strategy development was held in Kiev on November 19, organised by company Soya Ukrainy and attended by Ukraine's leading specialists in soybeans farming and research. According to them, Ukraine can and must become the Europe's largest soybean producers, as it has all the necessary potential for that. Moreover, there has now emerged a niche in European market that could be filled by Ukrainian soybean. The point is that European market is highly interested in GM-free soybeans, which the world's leading exporters, such as US and Argentina, are not always able to provide. As for our country - it mostly grows domestically selected varieties of soya and the standards of varieties selection in Ukraine are fairly high.

However, one should not completely disregard the presence of some amount of American genetically modified seeds in the country. Our producers have not yet made out a clear opinion concerning this kind of products, as there are certainly some economic benefits in their use. Ukraine therefore does have some planting of GM soya, though their percentage is insignificant.

Participants of the discussion have noted that areas under soya in the country have been growing steadily, and owing to pretty beneficial prices shaped in the market this year, sharp spurt in production may occur in the next one.

According to State Statistics Committee, Ukraine has planted 108,350 hectares to soya this year, of which some 100,000 hectares are forecast to have been harvested at a projected yield of 1.3 tonne per hectare. Last year the sown area was 82,000 hectares and the harvested one was 72,000 hectares. The yield averaged a little over 1 tonne per hectare.

All the conference participants were noting that the main obstacle to expansion of soya production in the country was a psychological barrier, as this crop was beyond the group of Ukraine's traditional farming items.