May 31 2006, 09:43

AMP expert will report about the perspectives for Ukrainian potato market on one of the largest international potato forums

"Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" journal jointly with the experts of the Agricultural Marketing Project carried out a survey of the perspectives for Ukrainian potato market development with regard to the world trends. The survey results will be published in the next issues of "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" journal. Moreover, Andrey Yarmak, the Deputy Director of the Agricultural Marketing Project, will present the survey results on the "Seventh International Potato Processing Convention" to be conducted simultaneously with "Second International Potato Storage Convention" on the 27th of June 2006 in Warsaw.

Andrey Yarmak says that at the present moment the investors are very interested in produce business of Ukraine, including potato business, which is considered to be one of its most profitable sectors. That's why the report about the investment possibilities of our country will be made on this event, for the first time in the history of this top world forum for the largest potato companies.

The interest grows also due to the fact that Ukraine belongs to four the largest potato producers; our country yields only to China, Russia and India as regards to potato production volumes. At the same time Ukraine leaves behind USA, Germany and Poland. There is practically no competition on the market of industrial potato processing in Ukraine. For example, French fries meet a dynamically growing demand from the side of public catering enterprises; but this product is imported now from Poland and other countries. Despite of large volumes of starch consumption, the production of this commodity does not satisfy the inner market demand. Ukraine has to import starch.

Irrespective of great production volumes, Ukraine does not export potato; this season our country had even to purchase potato from Russia, Belarus, Poland and Egypt. A very high percent of harvested potato dies during storage period in the country, so we can talk about the development perspectives for potato storage technologies in Ukraine.

The experts of the Agricultural Marketing Project think that the utilization of the modern production technologies and perspective potato varieties could let Ukrainian producers substantially enhance the production and reduce the production cost. In this case, high quality potato could successfully compete on the world market.