At the Kopany market (a wholesale vegetable market in the south of Ukraine) a few days ago there was a collapse in the price of potatoes up to 5 UAH / kg. At this cost, farmers do not see the point of growing it. This was stated in his appeal by Sergey Rybalko, vice president of the Ukrainian Association of Potato Producers, head of the Adelaide farm.

At the same time, says Sergey Rybalko, in supermarkets, consumers pay 20-25 UAH / kg for potatoes, and 15-18 UAH in markets. “There are intermediaries between us and consumers. They dictate terms, and not just for potatoes, ”says Rybalko.

The market has its own “purchasing mafia”, which manages all purchases. It happens that some day they don’t buy potatoes at all in order to collapse the market. ” But there are objective reasons, the specialist notes. One of them is that a large number of young potatoes from other countries were imported into Ukraine.

Today it is sold at 25 UAH / kg in supermarkets. And until it is sold, shelves for Ukrainian potatoes will not open. The second problem is that sending to the same Belarus remains a bit restrained.

“From Tuesday-Wednesday we will establish all these contacts and will be able to open the Belarusian market,” Rybalko notes. According to his expectations, export to Belarus will help to stabilize prices at the level of 9-10 UAH.