Watermelons and melons export decreased by 28%

During the seven months of 2018, the volume of watermelon and melon export to foreign markets decreased to 7 thousand tons against 9.7 thousand tons over the same period in 2017, which means a 28% decrease in exports.

This is reported by Kurkul.com.

Last year, the main buyers were:

• Belarus – 39.8% (3.8 thousand tons);
• Poland – 20.3% (1.9 thousand tons);
• Latvia – 13.5% (1.3 thousand tons);
• Lithuania – 11.8% (1.1 thousand tons);
• Estonia – 10.6% (1.03 thousand tons).

The geography of exports in 2018 has not significantly changed:

• Belarus – 29.3%;
• Lithuania – 26.5%;
• Latvia – 20.9%.

“Experts explain the decrease in exports to foreign markets by the difficulty of entering the EU market - the main consumer of watermelons and melons. The market of the European countries is very important for a number of exporters, and the market is very competitive,” the report says.

Ukraine ranks 55th among the exporters of these crops. The main suppliers to the world market are Spain, Mexico, the Netherlands and the USA.

Reference: in 2018, agricultural enterprises have increased the acres of pumpkin and garlic by 2 times. The area of pumpkin was 1 thousand hectares (218% against the level of the previous year), garlic – 1,1 thousand hectares (216%).