The head of the Rovy Agro Farm (Kyiv region), Serhiy Leonov, planned to start drying fruit and berry products this year, but abandoned this idea due to high electricity prices. He told Hromadske about this.
“We planned to process this year: dry and dehydrate the fruits and berries that we grow. We purchased dehydrators for this, but at the current cost of electricity, nothing is moving in this regard. That is, we bought expensive equipment, and it just stands,” Serhiy Leonov said.
He added that last year he paid UAH 40,000-50,000 per month for electricity to use irrigation systems, and this year — at least UAH 100,000. This year, Leonov grew mainly melon crops, but he also grows sea buckthorn, blackberries, sunflowers and other crops. He believes that farms remain underinvested due to the retail margin.
“We sold melons (watermelons. — Ed.) to chains for 4 UAH per kilogram, and consumers were already buying them for 12 UAH and more. Supermarkets are increasing their mark-up because they say, well, electricity is more expensive, we work from a generator. If before they added a margin of 35-40% to the product, now they can add 100% in different categories,” the farmer explained.
