About two weeks ago, EastFruit wrote about unprecedented in intensity and duration rains in the first half of March 2022 in Uzbekistan, which were replaced by an anomalous cooling in the second half of March. Moreover, two waves of frosts were observed during this period, that covered mainly the central strip of the country.

One of the consequences of the March weather anomalies for melon growers was the later than usual planting of seedlings of early watermelon varieties in the southern regions of the country. The incessant rains and the subsequent cold snap this month delayed the start of works by about 10-12 days, farmers of the Kashkadarya region of Uzbekistan noted in an interview with Khalq suzi (People’s Word). Thus, the beginning of the watermelon harvesting season in 2022 is expected in the first ten days of June – 12-15 days later than last year.

Growers of the Kukdala district of the Kashkadarya region are among the first in Uzbekistan to bring wholesale volumes of watermelon to the market. To do this, back in January, they begin to grow seedlings of early varieties of watermelon in pots, and at the end of the first or beginning of the second decade of March, they plant these seedlings on the ground under film tunnels.

According to the melon grower Gayum Tolipov from the village of Utamayli (Kukdala district), this year watermelon seedlings were planted in the fields under the film on March 22 – 10 days later than last year. Accordingly, the harvesting is also postponed for 12-15 days. Apparently, the harvest season this year will start in the first decade of June, while last year watermelons were harvested in the third decade of May there. This season, he planted 6 000 seedlings of early-ripening watermelon per 1 ha and plans to get a crop of about 30 tonnes.

According to Khalq suzi, 1 004 households live in the village of Utamayli, and the vast majority of them are engaged in the cultivation of watermelon, mainly early varieties. The total area of ​​watermelon plantations in this village is about 2 000 ha.

Сообщение The season of early watermelons in Uzbekistan will start later due to weather anomalies появились сначала на EastFruit.

Since 2014, the damage to apricot harvests by spring frosts in the south of Ukraine reaches almost 100% every year. Therefore, farms engaged in the production of fruit and berries are currently looking for solutions to this problem.

This was reported by the head of the farm “Vityaz” (Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine) Olena Berezina during the online conference “Farmer – climate: how not to lose this battle.” The event was organized by the Ukrainian Horticultural Business Development Project (UHBDP).

Hard discovery: since 2004, the soil surface temperature in the south of Ukraine can reach +68 degrees Celsius

As Olena Berezina notes, her farm began to plant apricot trees in 2007. According to the farmer, this is a perfect fruit crop for the south of Ukraine, giving a good harvest.

“But later, nature challenged us – since 2014, the damage to apricots by spring frosts has been almost 100%. Therefore, our enterprise began to search for ways to solve this problem. We found them easily: when pruning trees, we are left with brushwood that we started to burn during frosts in the orchard. We understand that this is not an entirely eco-friendly measure, but in this way, we solve the frost problem by 80-90%,” Olena Berezina notes.

According to the head of the farm, they noticed an increase in temperature on the soil surface up to +68 degrees Celsius since 2004. “It was a tough discovery for us, and we still did not understand that measures to shade the soil in order to avoid its overheating were needed – for example, the creation of windbreaks to protect against wind droughts. To understand and act, we had to go through several rather difficult seasons.” Olena Berezina says.

This year, farmers of the Mykolaiv region have lost 80% of the harvest of strawberries due to heavy rainfall

In turn, Serhiy Melnyk, head of the Mir Vam farm (Mykolaiv region) producing berries and vegetables, notes that his farm has faced a serious problem associated with climate change in the past two years – heavy rainfall in spring and early summer.

“Rains are accompanied by sharp fluctuations in temperature, which leads to a shift in the season – it starts and, therefore, ends a little later. Thus, the cycles of our crops are reduced. We are trying to fight climate change in our activities: we grow cucumbers on a trellis, use a shading net, but as practice has shown this year, this does not help during sharp temperature fluctuations,” Serhiy Melnyk says.

The farm “Mir Vam” grows strawberries on an area of ​​about 2 hectares. This year, 80% of the berry harvest has been lost here due to heavy rainfall. “All our attempts to cover the berry plantation with a “big umbrella” were unsuccessful. Today we are trying to adapt our business to climate change, but, unfortunately, no one can say what the weather will be like next season. Even 5 years ago, we knew for sure that winter will come in December. Now is the middle of December and there have been about 300 m3 of precipitation recently in our field,” the farmer says.

During the online conference, answering the question of the Development Director of the Ukrainian Horticultural Association (UHA) Kateryna Zvereva on spring and autumn frost issues in the cultivation of fruit and berries and ways to combat frost, Serhiy Melnyk noted that the issue is relevant for farmers.

“For example, we cover strawberries with agrofibre in February and do not remove it until crop starts blooming. However, last year, frosts occurred on our plantation on May 11. Thus, the difficulty of countering frosts lies in the impossibility of forecasting them,” Serhiy Melnyk explained.

Farmers do not know how to protect grapes from spring frosts and berries from summer rainfalls

Vira Popaz, head of the agricultural cooperative ResourceCompanyKubey (Odesa region), noted that heavy rains after the heat wave led to cracking of grapes and a loss of 85% of the harvest this year.

“We used to have snowy winters followed by a calm spring. We were sure that we received moisture, and expected the gradual development of the crops grown. Frosts were rare. We used to harvest 16 tonnes of grapes and good yields of other fruits. Over the past 10 years, our winters are usually snowless, the temperature can drop to -30°C. Springs are unstable, there are frosts in late April – early May almost every year,” Vira Popaz said.

Olexandr Britvin, head of the Limansk farm (Kherson region), notes that in recent years in southern Ukraine, spring comes in February, but then winter returns again in April. Summer, in turn, is accompanied by heavy rains.

“Today, on the eve of new year, buds appear on our trees, despite the forecasted drop in temperature to -12°C in a week. Thus, it is difficult to say what will happen to the peach and apricot orchards next year. But we can say for sure that buds will freeze,”- Olexandr Britvin says.

As for the protection of vineyards, today the head of the Limansk farm does not know how to protect grape buds from spring frosts. “We also don’t know how to protect berries from June and July rains,” Olexandr Britvin adds.

Another negative point, according to Olexandr Britvin, is the development of fungal diseases as a result of warm winters. “They develop today, destroying the harvest that has not yet been formed. At the same time, the effectiveness of antifungal drugs at temperatures below +5°C is extremely low. By the way, it is the same as at temperatures above +25°C,” the farmer notes.

As EastFruit previously reported, in combatting spring and autumn frosts, farmers have resorted to various methods: thermal guns, film, lighting fires.

But the most effective way is to use wind machines, says Denis Moskalyov, development director of the FROSTLEE frost protection systems for agricultural crops. According to Denis Moskalyov, one machine is capable of frost protection of a field of 3-7.5 hectares at temperatures down to -6°C.

The expert notes that wind machines transfer heat by the method of forced convection, taking warm air from the upper layers of the atmosphere and mixing it with cooler air in the field area. In this regard, the air temperature rises and all conditions are created to preserve the harvest.

According to Denis Moskalyov, frosts cause not only direct damage to the volume of the harvest, but also affect its quality.

“Indeed, under improper conditions for the formation of the fruit, defects appear. In this connection, the grower will not be able to sell fruit on the fresh market. An investment in frost protection systems is an opportunity to sell a high-quality harvest at a high price in the future.” sums up the FROSTLEE Development Director.

Сообщение Spring frosts, summer droughts and heavy rains: Ukrainian farmers are looking for ways to tackle climate change появились сначала на EastFruit.

Ukrainian potato growers are seriously concerned with their quality and sales. Due to heavy rains in most of the country, the quality of potatoes deteriorated sharply, according to analysts of the EastFruit project. Farms in the southern regions of the country, in particular the Kherson region, were especially affected, where potatoes began to rot in the fields.

Today, Ukrainian potato growers are forced to revise prices for their products almost every day in order to sell the harvest. Potatoes unsuitable for storage are now mainly offered on the Ukrainian market, and given the sharp deterioration in their quality characteristics, they must be sold as soon as possible. At the same time, the demand in this segment has also noticeably decreased, end consumers are often not satisfied with the appearance of the offered potatoes.

In particular, today Ukrainian growers from the Kherson region offer potatoes at 3-4 UAH/kg ($ 0.11-0.15/kg). Such a low price is also forcing growers in other areas, which have better quality potatoes, to lower prices. Today potatoes go on sale at 4-7 UAH/kg ($ 0.15-0.26/kg), which is on average 16% cheaper than a week earlier.

At the same time, according to weather forecasts in Ukraine, the rains on the territory of the country will continue until the end of this week. Most Ukrainian farmers agree that potato prices are unlikely to rise until the end of August, until they start harvesting potatoes suitable for storage.

Сообщение Heavy rains have affected the quality and prices of potatoes in Ukraine появились сначала на EastFruit.

This week, Ukrainian onion producers managed to slightly increase prices for their products, analysts of the APK-Inform: Vegetables and Fruits project report. Due to rainy weather, many growers have suspended the harvest of onions reducing the supply of onions on the market causing a the price growth in this segment.

Prices for onions of new harvest on the Ukrainian market have grown by an average of 22% since the beginning of this week. Today, producers sell them at 6.50-8 UAH/kg ($ 0.24-0.29/kg), depending on the quality and region of production.

At the same time, representatives of wholesale companies prefer to refrain from purchasing onions, referring to the very limited period of their sale, as well as to the rather weak demand in this segment.

Moreover, producers themselves consider price growth a temporary phenomenon. In their opinion, the downward price trend in the market will resume as soon as harvesting is restored in the fields.

It should be noted that today onions in Ukraine are offered for sale on average 1.6 times more expensive than at the beginning of July last year.

Сообщение Rainy weather helped Ukrainian farmers to raise prices for onions появились сначала на EastFruit.

According to the EastFruit team in Moldova, the leading horticultural enterprises of Moldova are to start harvesting late-ripening cherries at the end of this week or early next week. Most of the cherries are intended for export to Russia and Belarus. The heads of the leading farms are not optimistic about the upcoming active stage of the marketing season: the quality of cherries and the conjuncture on thw market raise concerns.

They note that on the eve of the most intensive export of Moldovan cherries, the demand for it in Russia is relatively low, and the prices on the Russian market is not favorable for suppliers – within 140-180 RUB/kg ($ 1.9-2.5 US dollars), while exporters from Moldova hoped for 200 RUB/kg ($ 2.75) and more.

However, it is not entirely clear what caused such expectations. The prices for cherries in Russia this year are the same as in the previous two years. High-quality cherries are now sold on the domestic market of Russia at $ 2.45-2.50. The same price was in 2020 and 2019 on the same dates.

There are also serious changes in terms of product quality. Cherry suppliers from Turkey, Iran and Azerbaijan became more active in the Russian market in 2021. In Uzbekistan, prices for cherries are currently lower than last year’s and export continues. The production of cherries in the southern regions of Russia also continues to expand, and their supply on the market is increasing. This means that importers and traders of the Russian market have a much wider choice, and here the quality of cherries becomes important.

However, there are a lot of problems with it. Most Moldovan farmers do not have a detailed idea of ​​the quantity and quality of cherries for export yet. Some of them complain that even unripe fruits have begun to crack due to excessive rainfall. If diseases spread in the cherry orchards, the yield losses will be high, and its post-harvest logistics will be very difficult. Taking into account the current developments, sanitary treatments are carried out, raindrops from the fruits are blown off by sprayers in farms that have an appropriate technological base, when the weather permits. However, these methods do not give a 100% guarantee.

Given the experience of the last few years, some leading horticultural companies have decided to invest in anti-rain and anti-freeze systems, as well as in the renewal of plantations with varieties that are resistant to fruit cracking.

In addition, it is obvious that now we need to think about purchasing lines for optical sorting of cherries, as well as diversifying exports. For example, this year you can make good money on the export of cherries to the EU countries. However, the quality requirements and competition there are even higher than in the Russian market.

Moldova, by the way, is one of the ten largest glba exporters of cherries in terms of volume. In 2020, the diversification of its cherry exports started, as the first bulk shipments were sent to Sweden, Poland, Latvia, Croatia and Lithuania.

Сообщение The demand for Moldovan cherries is still low in Russia появились сначала на EastFruit.

From the end of last week to the end of this week, wholesale prices for cucumbers in Moldova decreased by 25-50% to 6-8 MDL/kg ($ 0.33-0.45/kg). During this period of June 2020, cucumbers on the Moldovan market costed 11-14 MDL/kg ($ 0.62-0.79/kg). Moreover, their prices did not fall below the minimum level of 10 MDL/kg until the end of summer.

In a sense, the situation is unprecedented. Last weekend, the retail price for local field cucumbers (not sorted by size, but of good quality) in the Chisinau fruit and vegetable markets dropped to 5 MDL/kg, but the demand increased insignificantly and the supply clearly exceeded it. Farmers-vegetable growers massively complained about this in specialized groups in social networks, and the media responded to the problem by stating it as a fact. Apparently, the situation is unlikely to change in the coming days. There are rainfalls every day in the country, agricultural producers are forced to collect products every day in order to avoid spoilage and sell them for next to nothing. At the same time, imported cucumbers still prevail in many supermarket chains, their prices can be several times higher than in markets, but chain retailers are not trying to change it.

Read also: Moldova started exporting strawberries, but the prices are not getting better for growers

Several canning companies, through their procurement divisions, informed the farmers about their readiness to increase the purchase of cucumbers, but the price will directly depend on the quality, that is, the ability of farmers to ensure the sorting and delivery of products.

Сообщение Cucumber prices collapsed in Moldova появились сначала на EastFruit.

The heads of large horticultural agricultural enterprises in the south of Moldova argue that due to weak pollination, the potential 2021 harvest of cherries will be about 20% lower than in the dry last year. This was clear in May when the trees in the cherry orchards dropped a lot of fruits. Cracking of the still green fruits began due to the rains in late May – early June.

In the central and several northern regions, the situation is slightly better (in the sense that the pollination period took place a little later under more favorable weather conditions there). However, the ripening of middle and late cherry varieties is slow everywhere due to the large difference between night and day air temperatures. The period of peak harvesting and product entry into the market is shifted by another week. It means it will take place at the end of the second decade of June. Farmers are trying to sanitize cherry orchards, but light rains almost every day reduce their effectiveness. As a result, quantity and quality of the crop are forecasted to be lower by approximately another 5-10%.

According to expert estimates, the total area of ​​cherry orchards in Moldova is 7.5 thousand hectares. The harvest of these stone fruits amounted to about 11 thousand tons in 2020, to 20 thousand tons in 2019 and to 19 thousand tons in 2018. If the negative forecasts prove to be correct, cherry harvest this year will be the lowest in the last six years.

Сообщение The forecast of the quantity and quality of cherry harvest in Moldova is deteriorating появились сначала на EastFruit.

Analysts of Ukrainian EastFruit team report the beginning of a sharp decline in prices for strawberries on the Ukrainian market. This is due to improved weather conditions and high air temperatures, which led to an acceleration of ripening of strawberries in most regions of Ukraine.

Yesterday prices for strawberries in small wholesale in Kyiv did not fall below 50 UAH/kg ($ 1.84 per kg), and today strawberries can already be purchased even for 35 UAH/kg ($ 1.3). A sharp increase of offers of strawberries is noted on the wholesale markets in the country, and factories for freezing of berries significantly increased purchases. Wholesale prices for berries in the southern regions are similar to prices in Kyiv, but strawberries in the western region of the country, in particular in Lviv, are sold on average by 7-10 UAH/kg more expensive, because the season is just beginning there and mainly berries from more southern regions are sold.

It should be noted that prices for strawberries remained at a relatively high level this season due to excessive rainfall. However, APK-Inform: Vegetables and Fruits analysts expect that the strawberry harvest this year may be close to a record. In addition, the 2021 berry season began with a serious delay, which was further exacerbated by rainy and cloudy weather.

Therefore, there were no open field strawberries on the Ukrainian market for a long time, and farmers producing strawberries in greenhouses could earn well by selling berries on average twice as expensive as last year at the same time. Apparently, Polish farmers are prudently massively switching to growing strawberries in greenhouses.

The weather forecast for Ukraine for the next few days is quite favorable, although precipitation is still expected in some regions, but not heavy. The air temperature rises. This means that the peak of strawberry harvesting in the central and northern regions may be on June 15-18, when prices may drop to the minimum.

Will the wholesale price for strawberries in Ukraine drop to the level of UAH 25/kg (less than USD 1), as it was during the peak of the 2019 season? Most market participants and farmers believe that this is quite likely. However, high quality berries of the best varieties can be sold at a much higher price even during periods of extremely low prices, because this is one of the most problematic positions for supermarket chains, and many of them are willing to pay premium prices to suppliers of such berries.

Сообщение Prices for strawberries in Ukraine started to decline sharply появились сначала на EastFruit.

After a rather sharp decline in prices in the Ukrainian cucumber market a week earlier there is a tendency of increasing prices in this segment, according to analysts of the EastFruit project. Prolonged cloudy and cold weather in Ukraine led to a decrease in the supply of cucumbers on the market, and as a result – an increase in their prices.

Prices for cucumbers are currently within the range of 10-18 UAH/kg ($ 0.37-0.66/kg), which is on average 26% more expensive than a week earlier.

Read also: Ukraine: peak harvest of haskap started with good prices for growers

The main reason for the rise in price of cucumbers on the Ukrainian market is a significant reduction in their supply. Clean-ups are now being carried out in greenhouse plants in preparation for the second crop rotation, which entailed a significant reduction in the samples of greenhouse cucumbers. In the meantime, the supply of cucumbers from summer greenhouses also decreased due to the slowdown in harvest rates because of cold and cloudy weather.

At the moment, cucumbers in Ukraine are already on average 2.2 times more expensive than in the same period last year. However, producers do not exclude that as weather improves, the situation on the cucumber market may change radically in the opposite direction.

Сообщение Cucumbers becoming more expensive due to rains in Ukraine появились сначала на EastFruit.

The potential loss of cherry yield due to heavy rains is currently at 80%.

Agronomist and farmer of the Ukrainian company “Aurora” Evgeniya Nikityuk told this in the commentary for AgroPortal.ua.

“We cannot yet fully assess the losses, as it rains and will continue to rain for several days. There is only hope for around 20% of the harvest, but it is becoming smaller every day,” Nikityuk says.

According to her, stressful conditions for plants were initially formed, and they are still under stress.

“This is the first case in my 10 years’ experience. Our agronomists who have been working for more than 35 years have never observed such precipitation in spring,” the expert says.

She adds that the growing season of cherries has been greatly delayed this year and it has shifted by about 2-2.5 weeks, perhaps even 3.

“This stresses the tree. It dumps all potential crops. The fruits just crumble. In addition, biological ripening begins, the cherry picks up excess moisture and begins to crack,” the agronomist of the Aurora company says.

Read also: Haskap season is to start in early June in Ukraine

It is impossible to protect farms by any means under current conditions. Firstly, the mechanical equipment cannot enter on the field, and secondly, it is useless, because of the constant rains.

“It has been continuously raining for several days,” Nikityuk says.

The situation with plums and apricots is similar and it’s too early to talk about apple trees, she added.

For reference: LLC “Aurora” is located in the Orekhovsky district of the Zaporizhzhia region. Apples, apricots, plums, cherry plums are grown on an area of ​​120 hectares. 70 hectares are planted with 15 varieties of cherries. Also, the company exports its products.

Сообщение Due to rains, Ukrainian cherry producers may lose 80% of their harvest появились сначала на EastFruit.