Ukraine's imports of strawberries up in 2013 despite record high production

«Unfortunately, the Ukrainian strawberry production potential is significantly higher than farmers' capacity to find sales channels for their produce», says Ms. Tetiana Getman, Head of Fruit-Inform. «Practically all produced strawberries are still sold in the fresh market as growers are not interested in investing into production infrastructure. The majority of farmers do not cool their strawberries after harvesting. As a result, the shelf life is significantly shorter, and it is very difficult to sell those berries even in the internal market, needless to say about exports».

The expert also notes that the Ukrainian strawberry export potential reaches no less than 4,000 tons on condition that growers pay more attention to quality of produce instead of production volumes.

«Despite strawberry production to have been annually growing in Ukraine, the quality of berries remains the weakest point of Ukrainian farmers», Ms. Getman continues. «As a result, supermarket chains are forced to sell imported strawberries that are of higher quality in handling and packaging».

Furthermore, processing enterprises also have to seek for suppliers abroad as prices quoted by Ukrainian growers are unaffordable for processors.