While farmers may leave most of the young potatoes in the fields due to overproduction, the Ukrainian Potato Growers Association (UAPK) stated that France, Belgium and the Netherlands exported potatoes to Ukraine for the first time due to the inability to sell them during the quarantine period through traditional channels. sales.
This was reported by the executive director of UAPK Oksana Ruzhenkova.
“This year, for the first time in all 29 years, and perhaps even during the Soviet period, potatoes have appeared on supermarket shelves not only from Belgium and Holland, but also from France. They have stopped all the factories for the production of French fries. The main processing facilities in Europe are located on the territory of these states - more than 20 factories, which provided McDonald's throughout Eurasia and the entire HoReCa system, ”she said.
The states of Western Europe also delivered french fries to the recreational areas of Egypt, Turkey, and Israel.
Ruzhenkova noted that potatoes delivered to Ukraine are technical and are used exclusively for cooking fries.
UAPK Executive Director fears that both the trader, the supermarket, and the buyer may be deceived when choosing a product, since such potatoes look beautiful, are stored for a long time, but are suitable only for frying.
In her opinion, supermarkets where they will sell potatoes from France, Belgium and the Netherlands may not indicate the country of origin, and the price will practically not differ from the cost of the rest of the potatoes in the assortment.
In addition, Ruzhenkova noted that at the moment there is a certain shortage of potatoes for supermarkets, since last year there was a crop failure due to drought and even industrial producers with a normal crop volume could not level the domestic deficit.
At the same time, in early April, Ukraine did not have a supply of vip-level potatoes (lack of land on potatoes, 5% rejects per lot, fraction of 50 mm in diameter when cut), which ultimately increased supplies from Belarus and Russia, where the industry is subsidized and the state compensates farmers the construction of storage facilities, seeds and diesel fuel at the level of 50, 75 and even 100% depending on the federal district.
At the same time, supermarkets buy very little Ukrainian potatoes, since it does not meet the requirements of the new 2018 standard.
Ruzhenkova noted that Ukraine still does not produce french fries and accordingly has not learned how to grow raw materials for the needs of this type of processing.
At the moment, a large agricultural holding is building a plant for processing French fries in the Cherkasy region.
UAPK asks the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture to create a working group together with other industry associations in order to develop a mechanism of state assistance for 2021-2024 in the form of partial compensation for the construction of vegetable stores, installation of equipment for product refinement and field irrigation.