The results of the year in berry growing sector were summed up at the IV International scientifical - practical conference "Berries & Processing: Technologies & Innovations"

15.12.2020, 16:26

IV International Scientifical - Practical Conference "Berry & Processing: Technologies & Innovations" took place on December 10-11, 2020 in the Lviv hotel and restaurant complex "Warsaw". The conference became a productive platform for uniting specialists from the berry industry not only from Ukraine but also from Europe. The conference brought together berry growers, market experts from all over Ukraine - more than 280 participants. In addition, 45 companies with the presentation of the latest advances in technology for growing, storage, packaging, processing of berry products have been presented as well. It should be noted that all sanitary and epidemiological norms have been kept during the conference including providing facing masks, sanitizers and temperature measuring. Moreover, during the break, the hall was ventilated systematically by the modern, powerful system conditioning.

The conference was opened with the welcoming speech from the organizers Nadiya YASHCHUK, co-founder of the media group "Technologies and Innovations", and Anna PANKRATENKOVA, coordinator of the conference. Yuriy BUCHKO, Deputy Head of the Lviv Regional State Administration, Oleh BAZYUK, Director of the in-vitro nursery Dolyna Agro (main business partner of the conference), and Oleksandr BARBANYUK, Head of the Agro Busk farm (our business tour partner) also delivered their welcoming speeches.

After that, the roundtable concerning "Situation in Ukrainian berry growing: results of the berry season 2020 and the ways of the development this industry in 2021" was introduced. Iryna KUKHTINA, Oleksandr BARBANYUK, Andriy SHVAB, Vasyl MARTYUK, Taras BASHTANNYK, Vitaliy ISHMURAT, Beykhan TURGAI, Viktor DYTYNKO were participants of this roundtable. And, the moderator of the roundtable - Oleg NAUMENKO, director of the farm "Jagidky."  

Thus, the participants of the roundtable summed up the results of the berry season 2020, discussed the impact of quarantine and adverse weather conditions on the berry business. In particular, it was pointed the fact that year turned out even better than expected at the beginning of the season through the high berry demand. And there were no problems with workers on the field through the closed borders. Moreover, the participants of the discussion made a forecast for the berry season 2021, focused on the issue of berry exports and shared their thoughts on how to open new export markets for themselves.

In particular, Andriy Shvab noted the following: “One of the prerequisites for exporting products is certification. The easier way for running small berry businesses is uniting into cooperatives because it`s easier to form large product batches and enter the international market. In addition, one more prerequisite for successful berry export is their quality, as well as all export documents made in time. At the same time, no less an important element is also exchange of experiences, by doing so, it would be better for companies attending conferences, forums, seminars with the aim of promotion and reveal the value of your products“

Moreover, the roundtable included the issues about creation cooperatives and their effective work, as well as key aspects of selling berries in the markets and supermarkets.

The online discussion was supported by Iryna KUKHTINA, President of the Ukrainian Berry Association. She invited everyone to join up to the next year’s international scale event that will take place online. Oleg Naumenko summed up the results of the roundtable. First of all, he emphasized the fact that the small business today wastes money and time if taking the analogical line with Europe, it is more profitable and convenient for supermarkets to work with several large manufacturers than with a huge number of small ones. The way of solving these problems is only joining up small brands to large ones. In addition, the head of farm "Jagidky" summed up the forecast of the berry season 2021: "From one hand, many industrial plantations in Ukraine will enter into the fruiting phase the next year, but from other hand, people`s purchasing power will decline. Only this year, the fall is by almost 20%. That`s why we need to work on product quality and packaging to have more good - looking products to stand out on the supermarket shelf".

Current technologies in berry growing - a guarantee of a successful berry business

After holding the roundtable, another section about up-to-date berry technologies was under discussion. In particular, new technologies, advanced experience, innovative methods of growing berry crops were presented by representatives of the leading industrial enterprises. Igor TARUSHKIN, Regional Manager of Bayer Ukraine, told about pests and diseases of berry crops. Oleg BAZYUK, director of the in-vitro nursery Dolyna Agro, made a focus in his speech at critical moments during planting blueberry plantations. Taras MASLOVATYI, a representative of the company FruTek, spoke about new modern varieties of garden strawberries. And, the highlight of the discussion was Anastasia TERZEMAN`S speech, an expert of IP & Law firm "Pakharenko and Partners", General Legal Partner of the Conference. In particular, Anastasia Terzeman spoke online about the registration of plants, the name of the variety and trademark, reviewed the state registers. In addition, speakers of this section included also: Taras Bashtannyk, President of the UPOA Association, Vadym BOYKO, Director of the company PROFOPOLIV, Andriy SHVAB, Deputy Director of company Blue Berry, Artur SIZHUK, Agronomist of the company EFT Group, Andriy SHEVCHUK, Sales Manager "Voloshin", Bohdan LUTCHYN, owner of farm "Berry Prykarpattia", Olena BOLTOVSKA, project manager of Rosana Biological Solutions, Pavlo VOLYNETS, chief agronomist of the company"Agritema", Anna LUTSKO, an expert on agronomic issues, Ivan MAKOVKIN, agronomist for plant protection of he company BTU-Center, Oleksandr YARESHCHENKO, Deputy Director for Research of the Institute of Horticulture of NAAS of Ukraine, Bohdan BODNAR, Director of the company Organic Gardens, Roman VOROZHBYT, representative of the Polish company Haygrove. Moreover, the speaker from Italy, in particular, Adriana Dunda, sales manager of the company UNITEC (Exclusive partner of the conference) told about the new trends in berry sorting. Another speaker from Belarus, Oleksandr Berezin, the founder of the farm Berkeley who told the audience about the use of low-volume spraying in the orchard based on his own experience.
During the conference day, 45 companies introduced the latest technological advances in the cultivation and processing of berries at the conference. These are equipment, fertilizers, tools for plant protection, packaging, auxiliary materials. The following Ukrainian and European producers took part in the exhibition: PIGO, Fruit Sad, Bayer, Adana-3, Dolyna Agro, ProfPoliv, Eucalyptus P, Voloshyn Ceres Ukraine, BTU-CENTER, Alfainterplast, Rosana Biological Solutions, Club of Plants, Integro, FruTek, 4 stykhii, Mass systems, Insolar Kholod, Agrochemical Technologies, Arta-Chemical Group, Alternative PF Technologies, Clioma-Service, Agritema, Agroyutrading, Kingspam, ETF, Quantum, Karens, Vodovid, Fruit logistica, Pakharenko & Partners, Sorter Pak, Haygrove, Unitec, Novosad, Smartep, Transhimtrade, Royal Eco Boxing, Green Grows Trading, Modern Pak, AgroAnalysis-Expert, UNIDEX, Incools Engineering.

On the way to creating added - value product: freezing, processing, and peculiarities in storage

And, other actual themes of the conference were freezing, processing of berry products and the peculiarities in product storage. More details about technological innovations were shared by market experts: Alla PONOMARENKO, founder of Alta Kraina sro, Olga ROMAN, representative of the Italian company PIGO, Andriy MARUSCHAK, director of Incools Engineering, Lyudmyla BOYKO, chief technologist of the company Honey Badger. An extremely informative speech was delivered by Monica PRUS, Polish representatives of UNIDEX, she told about the fluidization process of freezing in UNIDEX tunnels.

A delicious highlight of the conference was the presentation of beverages made on basis of berries - liqueurs, etc. During the conference day, two companies Bakhus and Kweichow Moutai presented their products. In particular, the representative of the last company, Olga DZHAFAROVA, commented exhibited product: "We present the Chinese traditional drink - baijiu. The history of this drink is more than 2,000 years old and it has very long, complicated technology in manufacturing, in terms of taste, baijiu is on a par with Scotch whiskey and French cognac. Thus, everyone could taste this drink to feel themselves closer to the great Chinese culture.

A pleasant part of the conference was a prize draw from our partners: companies Arta- Chimgroup, Rosana Biological Solutions, UNIDEX, Royal Eco Boxing, Karens, Ceres Ukraine, Club Plant, Polish Borovka, Fruit logistica, BTU-CENTER, Dolyna-Agro, UniPack, Transchimtrade, Quantum. In addition, certificates for sets of magazines "Technologies and Innovations" 2021 were also drawn. Several participants received certificates for free blueberry seedlings from the company Fruit Orchard. At the end of the conference day, a festive buffet and an entertainment program with an amusement play of the folk group MiksBand waited for all.

Business tour to the leading enterprises of Lviv region

11th December 2020, the participants of the IV International Scientific & Practical Conference "Berry & Processing: Technologies & Innovations" visited 2 promising farms of the Lviv region - Agro Busk and G.P.Group.

Agro Busk is a promising enterprise, the owners of which have been growing raspberries, blueberries and coniferous ornamental plants (thuja and juniper) for 5 years. In total, the company has 65 hectares of land, from which 20 hectares were occupied with berries. The head of the company Oleksandr Barbanyuk noted that a key feature of his farm is that berry crops are planted on the slopes through the hilly terrain in the area where the farm is located. In addition, the plantation has loamy soil. That’s why there are a lot of specific nuances in plant care starting from the angle of slope that is needed to plant seedlings and ending with some peculiarities of using an irrigation system.

The farm "Agro Busk" has a modern automated irrigation system of the company "ProfPoliv". Vadym Boyko, director of the company ProfPoliv, told about the peculiarities of using the equipment. He pointed out that irrigation system has multifunctional controllers that control irrigation and fertigation systems, taking into account the specific needs of the project. Thus, the systems work online and provide full reports on the operations performed and their results go directly to your smartphone or computer. "These dates allow us quickly and operatively to make informed decisions on watering, fertilizing, and plant protection, even being in remote access" was said by Vadym Boyko.

Oleksandr Barbanyuk shared with the participants of the business tour the peculiarities of growing blueberries and raspberries in hilly areas, gave advice on how to choose the proper land for farming, as well as told about other nuances of growing berry crops. In addition, Igor Mazur, head of the farm Blueberry Group a partner of AgroBusk, conducted a master class on blueberry pruning according to an individual method. Thus, Igor Mazur noted that this technique can significantly increase the yield of berries.

Company GP-Group specializes in growing and freezing berries and provides freezing and preparation services for the product sale for other farms. The processing complex is equipped with a fluidization tunnel of shock freezing from Unidex. Moreover, modern sinks, conveyors, inspection tables, a fan, a packer, a weight batcher, and metal detector are installed at this enterprise.

For product freezing, the company GP-Group installed a fluidization tunnel of shock freezing from the well-known Polish manufacturer Unidex. In addition, they bought a lot of other modern equipment for processing fruits and berries - a sink, conveyors, inspection tables, a fan, a packer, weight dispenser, and a metal detector. Thus, the participants of the business tour received a case of tips and recommendations for creating own blueberry business from growing to processing.

According to tradition, the berry conference at the end of the year has a great opportunity to sum up the season, discuss challenges and ways to solve them, share experiences, and build plans for the next year. Current topics will be covered in the journal "Berry- Field" and on the electronic resources of the media group "Technologies and Innovations".

The next conference "Berries & Processing: Technologies and Innovations" will take place in Irpin on December 9-10, 2021. We invite you to participate!