On 21 February the VI Dutch-Ukrainian Greenhouse Industry Forum was held within the business program of the industrial fair of equipment and technologies for greenhouse industry ‘Greenhouse – 2017’

Leading Dutch and Ukrainian experts discussed outcomes of the previous year and forecasts for 2017 for the Ukrainian greenhouse sector, prospects for the Ukrainian producers as well as the Dutch innovations and market trends at the greenhouse production market in Ukraine and worldwide.

Although the Netherlands is relatively small country, it accommodates about 10,000 ha of high-technology greenhouses. Dutch greenhouse sector is not only one of the world's largest suppliers of greenhouse vegetables and flowers, but it also initiates global trends and provides know-how in this industry overseas.

Carolien Spaans, Agricultural Counsellor of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ukraine, informed that the Dutch companies, research and scientific centers make a significant contribution to sustainable greenhouse production with application of technologies allowing to save resources and grow fresh products with respect for the nature. ‘Investments of planting material manufacturers and research centers continuously making their contribution to development of the industry constitute nearly 15% of the annual turnover of the Dutch crop sector’.

Mrs. Carolien Spaans also noted that export of knowledge, services and technologies is a priority for the Netherlands: ‘Our country appreciates close relations and cooperation with Ukraine which has a great potential in the greenhouse sector. We constantly try to focus on practical aspects of the greenhouse production: discuss current issues at our forums, support demonstration projects for representing the Dutch technologies and materials to the Ukrainian producers’.

Yevhen Chernyshenko, President of the Association ‘Greenhouses of Ukraine’, told about outcomes of the previous year and forecasts for 2017 for the Ukrainian greenhouse sector which are currently not very comforting: ‘In view of high technology and energy-dependent production, greenhouse industry has considerably felt the negative impact of unstable political and economic situation in Ukraine. Unfortunately, year by year a situation in the greenhouse sector is worsening. From a financial perspective in 2016 the producers ended up with the minimum indices. There are different reasons: cancellation of special VAT regime, investment issues, slow growth of prices for vegetable products. In order to be more effective, now we are relying on alternative energy resources and adoption of the advanced technologies, but they can be obtained by means of investment programs’.

Hryhoriy Moroz, representative of Enza Zaden Ukraine spoke about tendencies at the greenhouse production market in Ukraine and worldwide, in particular Mr. Hryhoriy focused on products branding. According to him, effective branding of products will depend on the cooperation of three key businesses: seed company, manufacturer and retailer ‘Branding of products occurs at every stage, from positioning of the food as organic to arrangement of space on the shelf. For better promotion of the products it is essential to explore the global trends in food consumption and according to this to develop the strategy. For example, in the USA and Western Europe most attention is paid to the taste and organic origin; in addition, foreign customers would better buy a snack, i.e. vegetables as quick meal’.

Hryhoriy also spoke about ‘vertical pharming’, growing of salads and aromatic herbs on hydroponics in fully enclosed premise using artificial lighting by means of LED: ‘Today it is the newest trend in the world. Implementation of this project depends on the proper selection of seeds, technical equipment and market demand. It provides a lot of advantages: efficient use of resources, clean and healthy food, possibility of growing in big cities, food safety. In Japan, the yield of lettuce crop is 30 thous. heads per day in the production area of 3,500m².

Volodymyr Kornienko, Marketing Expert of Trading House ‘Kalynivka Premium’, believes that Ukraine has a great potential for promotion of products overseas: ‘The European market is much promising and interesting for top producers of fruits and vegetables than the Russian. First of all, in this ‘dispute’ the logistics wins. Secondly, Europe is ready to pay more but requires higher quality. Today companies are willing to provide good quality’.

According to Mr. Volodymyr, each company exporting products is an ambassador not only of its own brand, but it is a face of Ukraine as well: ‘We understand that we cannot provide customers with a bad product. There are four basic indicators that we follow: experience, reputation, quality and advertising. With regard to advertising, we encourage producers to participate in conferences and exhibitions. For example, Trading House ‘Kalynivka Premium’ has recently taken part in the exhibition ‘FRUIT LOGISTICA’ in Berlin attended by 70 thousand potential customers’.

Ihor Chechitko, Expert on Preparing to GlobalGap Certification described the typical requirements for greenhouse complexes. He informed that the opinion regarding GlobalGap safety is issued on the basis of tracking all stages of production: ‘Today Ukraine has a certain approach to determination of safety: a certain number of products is selected, tested on various parameters and according to the analysis results the opinion is issued. However, such system does not give an absolute guarantee since the company has hundreds of factors that can affect the outcome. For instance, sprayer or fertilizer spreader can be broken and, as a result, application of certain substances is not uniform. GlobalGap works ahead so that the entire production cycle will be developed perfectly. When all conditions are fulfilled, the products will be safe.

Mr. Ihor also told about preparation stages for certification of the greenhouse sector: ‘GlobalGap program includes approximately 400 clauses to be fulfilled, particularly regarding occupational health, safe use of pesticides, requirements for laboratories etc. For greenhouse sector, the attention is paid to execution of the control rules for glass and plastic, treatment of waste materials in case of breaking, use of lamps with safe ceiling. GlobalGap is popular among producers of greenhouse crops; now the top-5 certified crops on the area under glass includes radish, tomato, pepper, cucumber and strawberry. As of today, GlobalGap certificate enables the Ukrainian producer to export to nearly 100 countries, improves product quality, meets requirements of customers and retailers as well as upgrades image of the products and the manufacturer’.

 Note. Dutch and Ukrainian Greenhouse Industry Forum is an annual event held since 2012 in partnership with the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ukraine, Association ‘Ukrainian Agribusiness Club’,  Association "Greenhouses of Ukraine", AgriEvent Agency and Forum of farm technologies.