BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

01/10/2007

Belarus: vegetable crop will exceed 2 million MT

Warsaw - According to the information presented by representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Foodstuffs of Belarus for the Interfax Agency, the country plans to harvest more than 2 million MT of vegetables in the present season. "We forecast the vegetable crop to reach 2,08 million MT, which will draw level with the 2006 crop", announced Belarusian experts.

The vegetable harvest in agricultural cooperatives will amount to 355,000 MT, including 96,000 MT of white cabbage, 55,000 MT of beet root, 78,000 MT of carrot and 40,000 MT of onion. The Ministry of Agriculture and Foodstuffs of Belarus forecasts that the total vegetable crop from cooperatives, other agricultural enterprises and private farms will be sufficient for the needs of domestic market.

Additionally, the free resource of vegetables, which can be used for export is evaluated at 153,000 MT. As Belarusian specialist reported, by September 27th, the cabbage harvest was already finished on acreage of 195 hectares (10% of total), carrot - 554 hectares (16.8%), beet root - 726 hectares (21.5%) and onion - 1,9 thousand hectares (74%). It is planned that onion harvest will be completed in the first decade of October and other vegetables by the end of October.

The total potato crop is forecasted at 8,5 million MT, including 1 million MT from cooperatives. By September 27th, 642 thousand MT of potatoes was harvested from 30,100 hectares, about 67.4% of total acreage, with the average productivity of 21.3 MT per hectare (17.46 MT per hectare in 2006).

Source:

http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=8577