Named the prospects for the export of apricots, peaches, plums and cherries
In the Ukrainian stone fruit market, plum and cherry are the leaders in terms of production. But with the export of fruits, the situation is rather ambiguous.
Maria Lakeeva, an analyst of the Association "Ukrainian Berries" told about this during the International Practical Forum "Intensive Garden".
Apricots and peaches are quite specific for Ukraine, as they are very dependent on weather conditions.
Production of apricots and peaches
“Only single companies are ready to bet on these crops, and only if they have a foreign selection or attract international specialists. Unfortunately, our climatic conditions are getting tougher every year, and these fruits are very dependent on precipitation and spring frosts. As for exports, we would not advise relying on these crops, because we still do not fully satisfy the demand in the domestic market, especially for peaches (import volumes significantly exceed export volumes),” says Maria Lakeeva.
The situation with the creation of plums is much better, but the difficulty in deliveries to foreign markets leads to the fact that almost the entire size of the fruit is produced in the households.
Plum production
“There are no specific production standards, which makes it difficult to assemble a normal export batch. And it's hard to talk about system sales. But nevertheless, we almost never import plums, only at the beginning of the season to expand the assortment in stores. It would be nice to develop exports. And although the last few years there has been a certain drop in plum production, but due to the good frost resistance of the fruit, it is not as significant as, for example, for peaches or apricots,” says Maria Lakeeva.
As for cherries, today Ukraine is in the top 3 producers of this crop in the world, second only to Russia and Poland. However, the entire offer on the market concerns processing, but very few farms grow dessert cherries.
cherry production
“Since the main volumes of cherries are also concentrated in the households, processors have had a problem with purchases for several years now because the berries do not meet the standards. Therefore, today companies specializing in the shock freezing of cherries are forced to import certain volumes of fruits or create their own small orchards,” adds Maria Lakeeva.