The fact of export of Ukrainian potatoes to Belarus, about which wrote to EastFruit many times, became a sensation of the past year. Later, export deliveries of potatoes from Ukraine to this country were stopped due to the establishment of non-tariff barriers to exports.
Given the record low prices for potatoes in Moldova, which has traditionally been a sales market for products from Ukraine, as well as continuing problems with access to the EU market, prices for potatoes in Ukraine were the lowest of all countries in the region, as the harvest of potatoes was quite high.
During the 17th international conference "Fruits and Vegetables of Ukraine 2021. New Investment Opportunities" Vladislava Magaletskaya, head of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection, informed that the state knows about the problems of Ukrainian potato growers and is actively looking for solutions to these problems. ...
On her Facebook page, Vladislava Magaletskaya wrote: “At the end of this year, our neighbors (Belarus) set new standards for the export of Ukrainian potatoes. Now we are working to come to an agreement with colleagues and extend the export on mutually beneficial terms. At the same time, we are actively negotiating the possibility of exporting Ukrainian ware potatoes to the EU countries. This issue was also raised during my visit to Brussels. I am convinced that Ukrainian potatoes will soon be savored in many European countries! " - notes the head of the State Food and Consumer Service of Ukraine.
Experts note that access to potato markets alone will not be enough to boost Ukrainian exports. “Unfortunately, the main problem of Ukrainian potatoes is not a lack of access to markets, but its low quality compared to potatoes grown in EU countries. I have been talking about this constantly since 2010, when I helped create the Association of Potato Producers of Ukraine. Then we gathered at one table the largest potato growers of the country and buyers of the leading supermarket chains in Ukraine. And even these relatively low quality standards, which supermarket chains suggested to observe, were categorically rejected by the majority of Ukrainian potato growers. Instead of losing billions of dollars, potatoes could bring considerable export earnings to the country, ”says Andriy Yarmak, Economist, Investment Department, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The FAO expert's conclusions are also confirmed by practice. During the conference "Fruits and Vegetables of Ukraine 2021. New Investment Opportunities", Thomas Carpenter, an Irish potato grower who recently started growing potatoes in Ukraine, shared the results of his work in the country. In particular, his potatoes turned out to be 10 times better than those of most Ukrainian professional potato growers, due to adherence to all elements of the cultivation technology, harvesting potatoes with high-quality equipment and correct processing.
In the first 10 months of 2021, Belarus imported from Ukraine about 9,5 thousand tons of marketable potatoes - 5,5 times more than in the same period of 2020 and became the main supplier of potatoes to this country. According to analysts EastfruitRecently, commercial potatoes are again beginning to become a very popular product of international trade and are included in the top 10 products of the fruit and vegetable group in terms of export growth. At the same time, in recent years, Ukraine has become a net importer of potatoes, which means that it is losing the competition, primarily in the struggle for quality.