There is “huge potential” for Ukraine to become a major producer and exporter of fruits and vegetables for both its domestic market and other countries across Europe.
This is the assessment of leading Ukrainian fresh produce companies, who believe the gradual modernisation of the country’s production sector and growing awareness of the benefits of eating fruits and vegetables will help drive consumption levels in Ukraine.
However, most producers admit that some major problems are restricting the development of the country’s fresh produce sector, among them a lack of packhouses, glasshouses and other facilities, and continuing difficulties with corruption and bureaucracy.
Speaking to Eurofruit Magazine, Oleg Aleksandrov from the Ukrainian Fruit Company (UFC) said the potential for Ukraine as a producing country was “huge”, but said a key difficulty was a lack of awareness among growers of how to market goods effectively.
“The Ukrainian market has a very great potential for selling, but growers don’t know how or where to sell,” he said.
Despite this, Aleksandrov said that UFC’s business with Ukrainian producers was rapidly increasing. “Last year, we sold 5,000 tonnes of Ukrainian melons and watermelons between July and September – this summer, we expect to sell 7,500 tonnes,” he revealed.
Although he said the company’s current priority was to develop its sales with Ukraine, Aleksandrov believes there is “good potential” to export more, especially to neighbouring countries.
To support this work, he added that UFC was looking to acquire 50ha of land within the country to develop greenhouse production sites.
Similarly, Alexandr Brodskiy, director of fellow Ukrainian fresh produce company Eurofood, is confident that exports of fruits and vegetables, especially to Russia, will continue to increase.
“We are hoping to build this market at the moment, particularly in exports of products like potatoes and cucumbers for the Russian market,” he said.
However, as well as the “big problem” of ‘red tape’ and corruption in Ukraine, Brodskiy said the Ukrainian fresh produce sector was being held back by a shortage of packhouses and a lack of understanding of modern marketing practices, like labelling and branding.
For this reason, he revealed that Eurofood hoped to collaborate with its Turkish partner, Narpak Group, in the building of a new packhouse, likely to be sited near Odessa.
“Our strategy is to have greater exports from Ukraine and that’s why we want to open the packhouse,” Brodskiy added.
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