The low price of potatoes in Ukraine right now is hardly more than the cost of the vegetable. However, overall, potatoes on the domestic market will always be more expensive than in Europe.
This opinion was shared with the publication Seeds by the commercial director of the Dutch vegetable storage company Van Dijk Technics, Andrey Marushchak.
"In Poland or the Netherlands, farmers receive subsidies from the government - while our farmers have to work with their own money. After all, our producers have neither preferential lending nor any special conditions," the expert explains.
Marushchak currently associates the low price of potatoes with a sharp increase in the area under vegetables compared to last year.
"There are companies that have doubled their potato plantings. That is, a plus of 100%. Riding on last year's price of 38 hryvnias, they decided that this year the story would repeat itself, and they would be able to earn again," says the specialist.
However, this year the weather also played a role, significantly contributing to a good harvest - not only in Ukraine but throughout Europe as a whole. Therefore, the price of potatoes will remain low in the coming months. However, at a certain point, it will start to rise again.
"Already in March, April, and May of the new year, potato prices will start to rise again. Not significantly, but they will. At this time, potatoes will begin to be supplied to us from neighboring Poland because there are no quality issues there. And why do they have no problems? They have quite a few high-quality storage facilities," notes Marushchak.
The availability of storage facilities will allow European farmers to store potatoes until mid-summer without losing quality, and then sell them to Ukraine at favorable prices for themselves.
Potato prices in Ukraine - latest news
The director of the Potato Growing Institute, Nikolai Furdyga, notes that this year Ukrainian farmers will harvest a significantly better potato crop than last year. Therefore, there should be enough vegetables for everyone, and their cost will be moderate.
At the same time, the president of the Ukrainian Fruit and Vegetable Association, Taras Bashtannik, noted that domestic farmers lack storage facilities. Therefore, they will be forced to sell a large part of the harvested vegetables - not only potatoes - at very low prices.
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