Competitivness and prospects for development of berry production in Ukraine

The demand for raspberries and blackberries has risen sharply in Europe and North America in recent years. Ukraine is almost one third of the world’s black earth, a favorable climate for growing vegetables, fruits and berries, as well as a good ratio of daytime and night-time temperatures and optimal length of sunny day. Therefore, the authors consider that Ukraine could become a reliable supplier of berries in Europe and America. Berries will not give the same high gross production as cereals. But these products are perspective in terms of processing, value added and profitability for the manufacturer. Considering the strategic importance of growing berries in Ukraine the subject of the research is to study the competitiveness and prospects for production of berries in Ukraine. The conducted assessment of the status and prospects of growing berries shows that Ukraine has been steadily producing within the range of 130-135 thousand tons of berries in recent years. Due to the fact that the products of private households and horticultural societies are not actually taxed, they have significant competitive advantages over agricultural enterprises, which is one of the reasons for the curtailment of industrial horticulture in Ukraine. But, on the other hand, they are inferior to large enterprises because of not failing to implement sanitary, technical standards, certification etc. In order to ensure the competitiveness of domestic producers in the external market, berry producers need to be more actively involved in the process of improving product quality, since in Ukraine only five agribusinesses have a Global GAP certificate, which is a minimum condition for access to the EU market. According to the results of the study, the authors consider organic production of berries as another perspective direction for the development of domestic berries.