OREANDA-NEWS. December 13, 2012. The Ukrainians will be provided with fruit and vegetables. This year, agrarians have collected about 9.1 million tons of vegetables, 23 million tons of potatoes, 1.9 million tons of fruits and berries, and 490 thousand tons of grapes. This allowed not only to domestic needs, but also to promote import substitution. This was announced by the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Mykola Prysyazhnyuk.

"This year we have good indicators for the production of vegetables, fruits, berries and grapes. Thus, the production of vegetables is about 9.1 million tons. According to our estimates, in the last 5 years, it is the second largest crop. Potato production is 23 million tons; fruits and berries - 1.9 million tons; grapes - 490 thousand tons", said the head of the department.

Mykola Prysyazhnyuk also said that another current record was apple crop of 1 million tons. This yield enabled the domestic market and successfully exports fruits and berries abroad. This year, export has exceeded imports of apples for the first time.

The Minister said that vegetables import substitution occurs gradually.

In addition, over the past two years, the government has paid great attention to the development of agricultural market infrastructure. Across the country, vegetable-, fruit-, potato, wholesale markets of agricultural products have been built.

Mykola Prysyazhnyuk noted the importance of wholesale markets for agricultural products. During 2010-2012, the status of the wholesale markets for agricultural products is provided to 11 wholesale markets - in Lviv, Kyiv, Donetsk, these markets are already operates and in Zaporizhya, Kharkov, Odessa, Kherson, Rivne, Luhansk, Mykolaiv Regions and in Mariupol.