Ukraine today has potato storage capacities of 300,000 tonnes with the minimum necessary level to meet the domestic needs being 1.5 million tonnes, Director of the Ukrainian Association of Potato Producers Oksana Ruzhenkova has said.
“Today, Ukraine has 300,000 tonnes of potato storage facilities. Over the past five years, 350,000 tonnes of storage facilities have lost their usability. The domestic demand is at least 1.5 million tonnes,” she said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine.
According to Ruzhenkova, this year the state plans to allocate UAH 400 million from the budget for the development of horticulture, and under this program, potato producers see the potential for using funds to compensate for the construction of storage facilities.
“If about UAH 200 million is left for our needs [out of the total amount of funds under the gardening program], we will be happy. We will build potato storages for 100,000 tonnes and Ukraine will be able to at least slightly reduce the deficit. Some 100,000 tonnes of storages from scratch need about EUR23 million and we can build it based on surveys of the association,” she said.
She noted that until 2014 domestic potato consumption in Ukraine was estimated at 7 million tonnes, now it is about 4.5 million tonnes with production standing at 20 million tonnes. Some 95% of potatoes are grown in home gardens. The processing capacity in Ukraine is only about 250,000 tonnes of potatoes. Ukraine exports small volumes mainly to Moldova, imports about 270,000 tonnes from the Russian Federation and Belarus.
Imports of vegetables to Ukraine have significantly exceeded the figure of the previous record, which had been held for nine years, and in the 2018/2019 season (August-July) exceeded the previous record immediately by 27% and reached 264,100 tonnes.
According to the EastFruit information and analytical platform, in the 2009/2010 season, the import of vegetables to the country over the season exceeded 200,000 tonnes for the first time and amounted to 208,500 tonnes. Since then, the volume of imports of vegetables has not even approached the mark of 200,000 tonnes, but last season it exceeded the previous record by 27% at once.
“In 2018/2019, import volumes exceeded the previous season’s figure in natural terms by more than two times. Over the past two seasons, import volumes have more than tripled. In value terms, growth rates were slightly lower due to an increase in the volume of traditional inexpensive vegetables and potato in the import structure. In general, foreign suppliers of vegetables and potato earned $155 million in Ukraine over the season,” EastFruit noted.
According to the platform, the main items of vegetable imports to Ukraine in terms of value were tomatoes, onion, pepper, and cucumbers. In fact, Ukraine increased its imports of almost all positions of vegetables and potato, including salad crops and greens.
