OREANDA-NEWS. April 29, 2011. The Government is going is going to create mechanism to increase industrial production of potato. The Prime Minister said this in the village Nemishayeve of Kiev region after familiarization with work of the Institute of Potato National Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

The Head of Government noted that for the last 20 years Ukraine lost the organized industrial cultivation of potatoes. The Prime Minister said that now only 2% of all potatoes produced by industrial means of specialized households and 98% of the cultivated population are produced by population. According to him, this leads to an overstatement of the cost of potatoes so that profitability sometimes reaches 300-400%.

"We ought to create conditions so that to make it profitable to grow potatoes on a commercial basis - this is the first. Secondly we must create conditions so that vegetable store were built and developed logistic schemes of delivery and storage of potatoes in such amounts as are necessary for the normal potato sales prices", - Mykola Azarov said.

He emphasized that it is necessary to provide for a good planting material all farms which want to grow potatoes commercially, and to supply with a good seed rim private sector too.

Mykola Azarov noted that the existing ratio of 2 to 98 for a year or two authorities can not change. According to him for several years we need return to the proportion which was previously: 50 to 50%. "Clearly, we don’t change such proportion as to 2 to 98 for a year, but for few years, we need go back to the proportion which was previously: 50 to 50. That is, 50% - population grows for themselves and 50% - grows specialized households to provide sufficient quantities of potatoes for our people"- he said.

The Prime Minister added that Government is developing a special program that would prevent unreasonable increases in food prices, including potatoes and other vegetables.

In this context, Mykola Azarov said that last year Ukraine has managed to avoid a rapid rise in prices of bread, grains, meat. "Where the Government was involved - there is stability.

Where we had assigned prices for objective reasons in the so-called market - we got the skyrocketing. Therefore the task in 2011 to create such conditions that our people have food, including vegetables, at the acceptable price, we would have enough of these products and even in surplus - that is our challenge"- the Prime Minister said.