Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
Ukrainian season of greenhouse vegetables to start later in 2014
Ukrainian greenhouse farms plan to start sales of cucumbers in a month, and first domestic tomato outputs will be available since the mid-March, according to Fruit-Inform. In other words, the Ukrainian season of greenhouse vegetables will start at least two weeks later than usual due to late planting: farmers have to save on gas, which prices have almost doubled in Ukraine in this season.
«In a new season, we have faced a sharp jump in prices of gas, which is the main component in the production costs of greenhouse vegetables. Furthermore, we have lost one of the main export market for our produce – the Russian Federation», Mr. Yevgeniy Chernyshenko, President of Greenhouses of Ukraine Association, comments. According to him, greenhouse farms pay UAH 7,600 (413 euro) per thousand cubic meters in this season against just UAH 4,200 (228 euro) per thousand cubic meters in the previous one.
In addition, growers are not optimistic about the current season's produce sales prospects. The ban on imports of Ukrainian vegetables introduced by Russia in October has resulted in a loss of the main target market for almost all large greenhouses in Ukraine. We would remind you that big Ukrainian greenhouse farms have shipped up to 70% of their annual outputs of cucumbers and tomatoes to Russia over at least the past 3 years, and the export season used to start right after the first large volumes of export-quality produce had been available. Taking into account clouded export prospects in the current season, a part of enterprises decided to reduce areas in old energy-intensive greenhouses; some farms do not even plan to enter the market at all. Small enterprises located in the western regions of Ukraine have switched over to alternative power sources, which, according to growers, will most likely negatively affect ripening terms and produce quality.
At the same time, Ukrainian growers hope for higher demand in the internal market thanks to high prices and limited availability of imported cucumbers and tomatoes this year. According to Fruit-Inform, importers had to significantly reduce imports of those vegetables due to the devaluation of the Ukrainian hryvnia. Furthermore, as of the mid-January, prices of imported tomatoes were twice as high as registered in the same period of the previous season, and cucumbers were 80% more expensive year-on-year.