Ukrainian agrarians in 2023 plan to increase sown areas under onions, carrots and other vegetables, which will allow for a larger than in 2022 harvest, First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotsky said.
“The Ministry of Agricultural Policy and Food is working to fill the market and stabilize prices. This should be done not through regulation or limitation but through market mechanisms. Because regulation of prices, as practice shows, is realized in the shadow turnover,” – said the official on the air of the marathon “Unified News”.
Speaking about the current prices of vegetables, Vysotsky said that the prices of vegetables are the highest in spring, which is explained by the seasonal factor.
In addition, according to him, their cost was affected by two other factors. “First, the energy crisis created by the aggressor country prevented a large part of the harvest from being saved. Second, many vegetables, primarily onions and carrots, were grown in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. Because of the occupation of these regions, vegetables were not available to Ukrainian consumers,” Vysotsky said and expressed confidence that prices would go down with the arrival of the new crop.
According to Gosstat, prices for vegetables in Ukraine for the year to the beginning of March rose by 36.2%, fruit – by 74.9%, while inflation was 24.9%.
