BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

28/08/2007

Potato harvest will grow 7.2% in 2007 in Belarus

The gross potato harvest in all types of agricultural enterprises is expected to reach the level 8.9 mln. tons in Belarus in 2007 comparing to 8.3 mln. of tons in 2006; the Department of fruit&vegetable production, processing and trade of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of Belarus provided this information to Interfax.

"All types of farms expect to have the gross harvest on the level of 8.9 mln. tons", the specialists of the Ministry informed. All kinds of agricultural and other organizations, including farms, forecast to harvest 1.1 mln tons of potato, i.e. 52% more than in 2006. The agricultural organizations allocated 45,700 ha of land for this crop. 185,500 tons of potato will be supplied this year to provide the needed volumes for the commercial processing this year.

The Ministry forecasts, the agricultural organizations (included to the potato production development program for 2006-2010) will harvest 330,000 tons of potato this year (past year harvest constituted 268,400 tons of potato in these organizations). According to the Ministry data, as of August 27th the agricultural organizations harvested potato on the acreage of 0.5 thousands of ha, or 1.1% of the planned cultivation areas. 9,100 tons of potato were harvested; the average yield constituted 181.3 centner/ha. "This yield is rather high, as the massive harvesting has not started yet", the Ministry specialists pointed out. "We expect the yield to further grow".

In the whole, the Ministry mentions the favorable weather conditions this year for the formation of potato harvest. "Only some fields were flooded in Brest region because of the heavy rainfalls", the specialists observed.

At the present moment the analysts of "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" weekly are analyzing the condition of potato plantings in various regions of Ukraine. The results of the survey and the forecasted potato production and prices for this season will be available early October. The full price forecast and the tentative forecast of potato production in 2008 in Ukraine will be presented by the leading experts of this industry during the fourth international conference "Fruits and Vegetables of Ukraine 2007. Meeting New Leader" to be held on December 4th-6th 2007 on the territory of the National Complex "Expocenter of Ukraine" in Kyiv. The online registration form for the conference participants is available here.

Source:

http://www.lol.org.ua/eng/showart.php?id=49193

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