Ukraine may join Europe's top three raspberry exporters this year – expert

"According to my estimates, we will be among the top three raspberry exporters in Europe in 2017, after Serbia and Poland. We may take the fourth position globally following Chile," the expert wrote on Facebook.

He also added that in terms of raspberry exports, Ukraine is also inferior to the Netherlands and Belgium, which are re-exporters and net importers, that is, they import more than they export.

At the same time, Yarmak says that almost all major raspberry suppliers are gradually reducing the shipments of the berry, so Ukraine has a chance of taking their positions.

According to him, if domestic exporters take into account international experience, Ukraine will be able to become a global leader in terms of raspberry exports in the next decade, the expert predicts.

Read alsoUkraine boosts revenue from strawberry exports by half in H1"If we learn from the experience of others, we will shorten the distance to Poland, Chile and Serbia within five or seven years, and will be among the global leaders. I think that it is possible to predict with a high degree of confidence that the county will join the leaders in the world's raspberry exports in about 10 years," he added.

Last year Ukraine entered the world's top ten raspberry suppliers. At the same time, the country ranked 67th in terms of the global net exports of frozen raspberries.

According to Yarmak, the lack of manpower and insufficient level of knowledge in this area are the major challenges Ukrainian exporters are facing.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian farmers doubled the export of raspberries, blackberries and mulberries in 2016, to 720 tonnes, while the shipments of wild strawberries and strawberries rose by 1.7 times, to 2,270 tonnes, according to the Ukrainian Agrarian Policy and Food Ministry.