In defiance of the claims that Ukraine does not have any market for organic food, the demand for organic products (grown without pesticides, genetically modified organisms, mineral fertilizers, and synthetic plant growth hormones) is increasing, experts say.
There is hardly any country in the world where these products have carved out a large market niche: they coexist with ordinary products. Germany is ahead of the pack with its 26-percent organic food market share, while the European average is 10–11 percent. “If in the near future we have a three-to-five percent increase in our country, this will be a great achievement, because many directions of organic food production are not even being considered in Ukraine,” says Kostiantyn Yakovchuk-Besarab, general manager of “BIOLan Ukraine” International Association of Organic Production Stakeholders.
Nevertheless, organic food production is developing in Ukraine. Facilitated by constant demand, these products begin to make their way to the shelves of an increasing number of stores. But the foods grown without pesticides or any other synthetic and genetically modified “stuffing” so far come in a limited assortment: four kinds of crops and vegetables (potatoes, cabbage, carrots, and red beets). The 145 members of the association, including 56 farmers, plan to expand the assortment with various vegetables, fruit, dairy products, meat, etc. This year the association plans to sell no less than 130 tons of buckwheat, 80 tons of barley, 100 tons of wheat, and 40 tons of vegetables within the framework of the existing cooperation agreements with its partners.
Much greater amounts of organic food are exported. According to the association, the EU countries take a great interest in our organic cereals, legumes, as well as sunflower and flax seed. Thus, experts consider that organic food producers should not worry: if Ukraine fails to generate sufficient demand, it will be sold in Europe where the demand has exceeded the supply in the past 10–15 years.
However, a healthy lifestyle is becoming more and more popular among Ukrainians, and healthy nutrition is an essential part of it. Serhii Levakhin, representative of a company that processes organic cereals and supplies to retail networks, says that nowadays an average purchaser of organic foods is a middle-aged middle-class woman who is raising one or two children and lives in a big city. Thus, quality is a top priority for her. Svitlana Horban, head of the consulting department, Association of Organic Producers, is convinced that inspectors check everything, from the quality of soil to the quality of the grown product. Moreover, as the association assures, processing companies simply will not accept poor-quality products.
But even these high-quality organic foods, which is readily available in stores, may not meet the consumers’ needs due to their price. Prices turned out to be the hottest issue in the discussion of organic food.
The main players on the marker do not conceal the fact that the costs of producing organic food are somewhat higher as compared to conventional products. For example, they pay 10–30 percent more to the producers, while in stores the prices are three to four times higher than the average.
Why are the retail prices so high? The issue was raised by both journalists and farmers at a recent roundtable on organic food.
The leading specialists failed to offer a specific answer, while they emphasized the lengthy transition period between conventional and organic production. It takes three years, i.e., two crops are used exclusively as animal feed. Moreover, a farmer who has decided to go organic immediately asks two questions: How much crop yield will I lose? How much will I be paid as compensation?
Private entrepreneur Ivan Kryvenko noted that it is very easy to obtain organic products: one simply needs to refuse using chemicals and fertilizers. However, it is much more complicated to grow biologically full-fledged vegetables and fruit. Therefore, in this kind of farming it is allowed to use organic manure, which are not harmful to consumers’ health, but help grow useful products that are complete with all the necessary vitamins.
Oleksii Kachkovsky, an independent expert who has worked as an inspector for seven years and visited 70 percent of Ukraine’s organic farms, has a somewhat different view on pricing. “The prime cost of organic technologies is lower than that of the conventional, chemical-based ones. Even if organic products are sold at the same price as the non-organic foods, their producers will profit,” he say. However, Vasyl Pyndus, chairman of the abovementioned association, is convinced that the organic food prices are high in Ukraine for the single reason: we are in the transition period. When the share of organic food increases, the markup will be 25 percent and the retail prices will automatically drop.
For example, today the price of ordinary potatoes is three to four hryvnias per kilo, while organic potatoes cost 12 hryvnias; a kilogram of organic carrots costs nearly the same as five kilos of conventional carrots.
