Since the collapse of the USSR, mushroom
production in Ukraine has developed more than
in any other country; today Ukraine produces
more than 50,000 tons of mushrooms per year,
whereas Belarus produces 15,000 tons and
Russia only 9,000.
Despite the fact that the domestic market is saturated and mushroom prices are low, producers have no plans to reduce production. Moreover, in 2015 many farms worked more intensively than before.
The national currency devalued 3 times within 2 years. The average cost of mushroom production was 1.5 Euro/kg in 2013, it did not exceed 0.8 - 0.9 Euro/kg in 2015, and in the most advanced farms – 0.6 Euro/kg. This allowed profitability to be maintained even when the selling price rarely exceeded 1 Euro/kg.
"The demand for compost is huge, and we cannot even satisfy it," says Maxim Yenchenko, development director of the largest mushroom and compost farm in Ukraine, which is owned by Veres Group. According to M. Yenchenko, significant amounts of compost are exported from Ukraine to Moldova, Romania, Russia. Change in the national currency has made it possible to even export compost to Poland which is a leader in the production of compost and mushrooms in Europe.
For more information:
Mushroom information agency
Umdis
Kiev, ul. Shorsa 31, office 604.
Tel: +380-67-506-45-21 or +380-50-822-38-80.