Poor potato harvest in Poland will lead to dramatic price increase for this commodity

Potato harvesting peak is observed now in Poland. This crop has severely suffered from the record draught this summer. As a consequence of the insufficient moisture content in soil, to the experts' opinion, potato harvest will rapidly decrease, despite of 20% extension of potato cultivation areas.

According to evaluations of Polish specialists, potato harvest will hardly reach 10 mln. tons. Nearly one million tons of potato more was grown in Poland past year. If such pessimistic forecast comes true, it will mean that an average potato yield (around 14 tons/ha) is the lowest comparing to the previous years. We should also point out that potato production in Poland will constitute only 72% of the harvest got in 2004 (the decrease is nearly 4 mln. tons during two years).

To the opinion of Andrey Yarmak, the Deputy Director of the Agricultural Marketing Project, such a dramatic decrease of potato production in Poland during two previous years may cause potato deficit in Poland. This country is one of large suppliers of the mentioned commodity in the region. Besides, it will be quite problematic to purchase large shipments of quality potato for fresh market and for processing enterprises. And, this situation will definitely affect Ukrainian market.

The expert says most production regions of Ukraine, unlike Poland, have not suffered from draught. Ukrainian producers of these regions expect potato yield to increase. At the same time, potato production will be significantly reduced in some oblasts of Ukraine. At the present moment the experts of the Agricultural Marketing Project are finishing the updated forecast of potato price and production forecast, as well as the forecast for other vegetables, fruits and berries. This material will be published in one of next issues of "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" journal. And, the final forecast will come public during the third international conference-exhibition "Fruits and Vegetables of Ukraine 2006. Open market" to be held December 5th-6th 2006 in Kyiv on the territory of the National Center "Expocenter of Ukraine".

Source:www.lol.org.ua