Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
Ukraine: growing areas under the greenhouse vegetables has grown
Over the past three years, areas under greenhouse vegetables in Ukraine is gradually increasing. According to official data, from 2016 to 2018, these figures increased by 9%. At the same time, AGRI-GATOR analysts note that the largest area growth was recorded in 2018.
According to data from the State Statistics Service, in 2018 6,470 hectares are in use for greenhouse vegetables growing in Ukraine. For comparison, a year before greenhouse vegetables occupied no more than 6,000 hectares.
More than half of these areas are used for greenhouse cucumbers production. At the end of 2018, greenhouse cucumbers were grown on an area of 3,300 hectares, which is by 9% more than a year before. Tomatoes are in second place. Plantations under this crop occupy 39% of the total area, or 2,500 hectares. It should be noted that areas for tomato growing has also slightly increased since 2017. White cabbage closes the top three, this crop areas grew by 15% - from 316 to 365 hectares.
According to experts, the growing interest in tomatoes and cucumbers greenhouse production is due to several reasons. Firstly, demand for greenhouse produce is rising in the country: every year wholesale companies and retailers increasingly refuse to open-ground produce because of problems with the quality of such vegetables. Secondly, the majority of greenhouse centers quite actively export such products, which also favors an area's increase.
As for cabbage, a gradual increase in the area under this crop is associated with high demand for these products at the beginning of the sales season and as a result with quite attractive prices.