Make Money On Nuts Possible - Proved By The Participants Of The All-Ukrainian Nut Forum
08.09.2021, 10:00
Running nut business successful is possible! This statement was proved by the participants of the All-Ukrainian Nut Forum 2021, which took place in the Conference Hall "Irpin" on September 2-3 in the city of Irpin (Kyiv region). The forum brought together almost 20 speakers, 150 participants from the different Ukrainian regions, and 28 partner companies, introduced current technological solutions for successful nut cultivation and processing. During experts` speeches, they analyzed all peculiarities of running nut business from the seedling selection and planning plantations - to obtaining high-quality crops on the industrial scale, including nut processing and sale.
On the 2nd of September, the planarian part of the All-Ukrainian Nut Forum took place. Important, current issues have been discussed by industry experts and managers of successful nut farms, representatives of specialized associations, scientists during the roundtable. In addition, the conference participants had the opportunity to discover a technology exhibition and the exhibition of various kinds of nuts, seedlings, a presentation tasting non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages, and other products based on fruits and berries, or the products with the use of honey and nuts. On the 3rd of September, conference participants went on a business trip to one of the most successful regional nut farms - "Nut of Polissya." The start of the All-Ukrainian Nut Forum was from the welcoming speech by the founders of the media group "Technologies and Innovations"; Kateryna KONEVA and Nadiya YASHCHUK.
During a welcoming speech, Katerina Koneva said the following: "We issue our journal "Nut Wood" for five years in a row, and we saw the necessity to bring together our readers and partners in one place on the one an informative platform. Last year, the first Nut Forum became a part of the conference "Technologies and Innovations: From the Land to the Finished Product." We noticed how the nut business turns into a powerful industry and can bring a serious income to everyone who wishes to be involved in it. But if you don`t want to "bury" your money in the ground, better to know all details in nut growing and further processing. Glad to meet so many participants, as the key forum aim is to attract people who have free land and time to start a new business. And today, we will prove that growing nuts is profitable and promising business."
After that, Lyudmyla LUKYANCHUK, Advisor of the IP and Law firm "Pakharenko Partners" General Legal Partner of the All-Ukrainian Nut Forum, Patent Attorney of Ukraine, delivered the speech.
She said the following: "The specialist focused on the issue of intellectual property in nut growing. The variety is assigned a proper name that must uniquely identify it to be different from any other existing name in Ukraine and the States Parties of the variety of the same or related species. The variety name in Ukraine must be in coincidence with the name in another country if the variety has been protected or if the application for a plant variety has been submitted in another country. But, if the variety has not been granted patent protection in any country, but it sells on the market or is famous under a certain name, by doing so, it means that the identical name has to be taken in the course of obtaining protection. It is necessary to be in line with policy "One Variety - One Name" and reflects the importance of having a single name for each variety throughout the world."
The interactive format of the All-Ukrainian Nut Forum allowed participants from all over Ukraine to share experiences, discuss urgent problems in the nut industry to find the solution. And most importantly – each forum participant was able to convince that the nut business is a profitable business, which can help you reach financial stability and your family.
Ukrainian Nut Growing Today: Expectations & Reality
One of the important parts of the All-Ukrainian Nut Forum 2021 is a roundtable on the theme "Ukrainian nut growing today: expectations and reality. Problems of the industry and their ways in solving" Kateryna KONEVA, Editor-in-Chief of the Media Group "Technologies and Innovations", and Oleksandr MATVIETS, Chairman of the Association "Ukrsadprom" have been the moderators of the roundtable.
The roundtable discussion was attended by the head of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy Nadiya
KLYUVADENKO, the head of Ukrsadvynprom, Volodymyr PECHKO, Managing Partner of IP and Law Firm"Pakharenko & Partners", Antonina PAKHARENKO-ANDERSON, Director of LLC "TD KORFU", Serhiy PODOROZHNIY, Associate Professor of Horticulture and Viticulture Uman National University of Horticulture Volodymyr MAYBORODA; Mykola KUCHER, Director of the Nut Center of the Zalissya, Anatoliy BURLAKA, Director of the farm Sutsvittya, Oleksandr KOSMIDAYLO, a representative of the farm "KOM."
Oleksandr Matviyets emphasized the following: "Horticulture, together with nut growing, today is firsts of all, socially-oriented. If each village will be having more than 5 hectares of orchards, these will be new jobs and along with that the budget revenues."
According to Nadiya Klyuvadenko, less than 30% of products produced on the territory of Ukraine are certified. Everything else is "in the shadows.
"It would be great to have more certified planting material than we have now. But the legal and regulatory basis today is in a deplorable state. Therefore, two working groups have been set up at the ministry, which began operating in May, working on the program improving the regulatory and legal basis. The certification system is now simplified. The planting material should be submitted to the Register of Varieties of Ukraine. Variety registration documents can be submitted through electronic offices to the certification center, and they will be under consideration online. Thanks to a simplified system, you can make everything quicker" - emphasized by Nadiya Klyuvadenko.
Besides, Volodymyr Pechko, Chairman of "Ukrsadvynrom", noted that nut sector is one of the main areas in the field of horticulture, which urgently needs state support.
In particular, he noted that we are not able to compete, for example, with American companies. In 2019 in America, funding for only one sector in horticulture - apple-growing - increased from 8 to 12 million dollars. We have all financing for horticulture, viticulture, hops, nuts growing about $ 15 million. Thus, the nut sector requires funding, including fruit processing. The state has not invested in this sector since Soviet times. We hope that with the latest changes in legislation, we will have a boost in the nut supply and the processing and export of this crop. By 2021, 450 UAH million has been allocated for nut crops, including walnuts, hazelnuts, and almonds. Compensation for seedlings is up to 80% of the cost. Compensation for a trellis fruit tree is about 50%, on mechanisms, technics, and the equipment - to 30%. In Ukraine, some equipment for farms is financed by the government, but at the same time, horticulture needs specialized foreign equipment. The reason would be obvious to provide the opportunities to fund machinery and equipment produced abroad.
Within the roundtable, noted the following - there are 39 varieties of walnuts and 27 hazelnuts registered in Ukraine today. Meanwhile, there are 68 apple varieties registered.
According to Mykola KUCHER, a representative of the Zalissya Nut Center, the demand for walnuts has significantly decreased in Ukraine over the past three years. Meanwhile, according to Mykola Kucher, farmers are creating industrial plantations of walnut variety Chandler. Thus, the specialist predicted the possible progress of lateral varieties fruiting.
How To Create A Successful Nut Orchard: Up-to-date Approaches
The conference participants have been presented as successful and experienced nut growers as those who are just starting or have just started their own nut business and need guidance for obtaining guaranteed income. The forum participants learned about all the stages of planting nut orchards: from the seedling selection to the profitable product sale.
Oleg TYRSYNE, President of the Association of Nut Growers of Moldova, presented his foreign experience in nut growing.
Oleg Tyrsyne shared his experience: "Walnut has been growing in Moldova for more than 2,000 years. In the beginning, there was not too much knowledge about the technology in growing nuts, and no completely studied the planted varieties. After 5-7 years, it turned out that the results were not enough satisfied by many of us. As a result, in mid-2010, nut growing began to change approaches in nut growing cardinally. We learned from our own mistakes. In addition, we consulted with experienced European nut growers, began to use new technologies for growing nuts. And, most importantly - nut growers started to graft nut trees. It means, tall, large treetops completely removed and grafted new varieties of nuts, among which traditional Moldovan variety and several American and French. Now we successfully export nuts in the shell and without it. European partners are satisfied with the quality of our products."
Ivan Yukal, an expert in nut growing and pollination of nut orchard, the owner of farm "Tviy Gorikh", shared the basics of planting and pollinating a walnut orchard. An interesting speech, based on their own experience, aroused great interest of the audience with the number of questions to the speaker.
Ivan Yukal noted that the main mistake of nut growers is that they are not fully aware of this nut crop and do not fully understand how it fructifies. The main question that concerns nut growers is why a nut tree doesn’t want to bear fruits? There is a lot of information about nut growing also this niche is big that people invest a lot of money in this kind of business, but there is no desirable level of harvest. Nut trees do not bear fruit due to unfavorable conditions for pollination, if father form is at the heart of the orchard if during flowering was low temperature, or gets chemical burn. Thus, at the high humidity, pollen does not want to fly in the air, as at the high temperatures (from +26degrees) pollen dies. If the temperature drops to +4 degrees, the pollen becomes unviable.Moreover, female and male walnut flowers bloom at different times. According to this principle, they are classified into protandrous, protogynous, homogamous types. 70% of all flowers belong to protandrous type, 20% - protogynous type, 10% - homogamous type (self-pollinating varieties). It means that when you are choosing a variety, please ask for a detailed variety description, in particular, the period of blossom, how long the vegetation period lasts. According to these data, you can make a table and adjust the protection.
Igor Tsybenko, the founder of the nut nursery "Batkivskiy Sad" told about the peculiarities of growing hazelnuts on the trellis using cyclic pruning and harvesting with the help of a hanging grid. In particular, the specialist focused on varieties suitable for growing on the trellis.
- Varieties with weak or moderate growth strength, with the vertical growth habit, as those that lay fruit on the short increments are suitable for growing on the trellis. These are Cosford, Sirena, Panskiy, Acorn, Trabzon, Barbacan, Italian varieties of the Tonda variety. The suitability of other varieties for intensive cultivation is still being studied.
According to Igor Tsybenko, growing nuts on the trellis is profitable. After all, you do not have to wait 5-7 years to get the same harvest according to the classic planting scheme. The nut crop at this level is harvested for the second year during growing on the trellis. The main costs go to seedlings. The state provides compensation at the level of 70% of the total amount spent on the seedling purchase. The profitability of growing hazelnuts on a trellis of 1 hectare is much higher, and the payback comes faster than according to the traditional scheme of growing crops.
Mykola STETSYURA, the head of farm Stetsyura MP, in his speech focused on growing hazelnuts grafted on a Turkish hazel.
Makar TERESHENKO, the founder of the company HAZELSTAR, told about the choice of planting place soil analysis and the peculiarities of planting hazelnuts.
- As a rule, the orchard, we plant for decades. If you make a mistake during the planting orchard there are two options to solve the problem: either live with this error or uproot the orchard and plant it in a new way. That is why a lot of attention must be on the different stages of planting nut orchards, in particular, the choice of location, compliance of soil properties with the requirements, pre-planting fertilization, pre-planting soil preparation, and so on.
"Particular attention should be on the quality of the planting material. It would be better to focus on the nurseries checked by phytosanitary service and offered by virus-free seedlings because you need to buy only registered varieties. Nurseries must give you a certificate about approved varietal properties of plants and a certificate that provides a marketable variety of properties. So, when you make sure in high-quality planting material that has 100% potential. Another important aspect is the placement of pollinators. There are four different schemes for planting seedlings. But I like placing 6-8 rows of the main variety and two rows of a pollinator that helps you easier harvest nuts. It is not convenient to place pollinators all over the orchard through every 3-4 trees, as during the harvesting process, you may lose the appropriate appearance of the product. You get a mixture of varieties", shared the experience of Makar Tereshchenko.
Vitaliy VORONTSOV, a market expert and head of the Agricultural Advisory Service AgroCare ASC, focused on the peculiarities of creating current hazelnut orchards. As was noted by the expert, an effective nut orchard cannot be created without phytopathological analysis of the soil that helps you get complete information about the species composition and the number of phytopathogenic fungi also predict the development of many dangerous diseases and properly plan the protection system.
Dmytro GRINENKO, project manager of the company Impak, presented a walnut nursery with a closed root system. According to the expert, growing nuts in the closed root system is promising, as has many advantages:
- If we plant a seedling from the closed ground into the open, for sure it will take root. A significant advantage - the seedling can be planted in open ground at any time of year. After planting, you don`t waste a whole year. After all, when if you plant a seedling with an opend root system, it takes all year to acclimatize and take root. The advantage is also the whole root system that helps further the healthy development of the tree.
Dmytro Grinenko called several criteria for the proper orchard, in particular, proper choosing seedlings, the soil for the seedling, watering, and garter.
Petro SKRYPCHUK, Ph.D. of NUWM, chairman of the Association Green Initiatives, head of the project Polissya Nuts, told about the low-growing walnut tree as the coming future in nut growing industry. According to the expert, fast-growing, low-growing walnuts are guarantee success for 20-30 years ahead. One-year seedlings were planted in autumn 2019 (height 40 -50 cm), but in spring 2021 already had a height - 150 to 200 cm.
Technologies For Growing Nut Crops
If you want to plant and get a highly productive industrial nut orchard, it is impossible without using innovative technologies in orchard care. Speakers: Pavlo HORBYLEV representative of Eucalypt P, Serhiy RYABKOV, Director of the Special Design and Technology Bureau, Volodymyr Silenko, Ph.D., Head of the Expert Department of BTU-CENTER, Dmytro FILIPOV, Head Polyv Service, Olesya Sitarska, Volodymyr VOEVODIN, specific crops marketing manager of BASF dedicated their speeches to this theme.
It must be made a mindful project in planting nut orchards to get a good and quality harvest after all. Serhiy Ryabkov, Director of the Special Design and Technology Bureau, focused more on this theme:
- The method and technique of watering must meet some requirements, especially ensure equal distribution of water over the entire plantations in the active root layer of the soil to the proper depth of moisture. Moreover, we should use water very thriftily. Thus, watering should not harm soil fertility, moreover prevent the destruction of structure, erosion, salinization, waterlogging of soil. Mechanized and automated watering reduces the cost of manual labor. And drip irrigation meets these requirements most fully today.
Perfect irrigation is the main component in the growth of any orchard. Pavlo HORBYLEV told about current trends in nut irrigation technologies, especially an expert focused on the importance of controlling soil moisture, as this ensures a better harvest.
- Lack of moisture and constant stress bring to a lack of nutrients and reduce fruit quality. At the same time, free access to water provides the best result, - said the expert.
Volodymyr VOEVODIN, marketing manager in the specific crops of the company BASF, told about the peculiarities for walnut orchard care. The main focus was on the most common diseases of nuts and resisting them with the use of BASF drugs.
The theme of an integrated approach for nut crops cultivation in current conditions was revealed by Dmitry Filipov, the head of the company "Polyv Service." The specialist analyzed different ways of watering walnut orchards: sprinkling, micro-sprinkling, and drip irrigation.
- Irrigation systems work effectively if a high-quality irrigation project has been designed by considering additional initial data: analysis of water, soil, topographic peculiarities, etc. High-quality installation of the irrigation system, trained specialists on how to operate this system and well-established work for the maintenance of this system, - was noted in Dmitry Filipov`s report.
One more important aspect of nut orchard care is its proper nutrition and selection of quality products for this purpose. Thus, the whole report was dedicated to this theme by Ph.D., supervisor expert department of the company BTU-CENTER, Volodymyr Silenko, who focused on biological products:
- Volodymyr Silenko told us more about how with the help of biological products, you can treat and prevent fungal and bacterial diseases, oppress the growth of phytopathogens. Thus, biological products stimulate the growth of the root system and increase the space of absorption of nutrients, improve soil quality, neutralize phytotoxins, etc. Moreover, presentation of new biological products of the company BTU-CENTER and their effect on nuts.
The report of Maria PANAS, product manager of the company Timac Agro Ukraine, was also dedicated to the theme of nut nutrition. At the same time, she also shared her experience in nut growing. The final stage in the cultivation of nut crops is a profitable sale of the harvest. Olesya Sitarska`s report on the preparation of nuts for sale was dedicated to this thematic as well.
Olesya Sitarska briefly told us the process of preparing nuts for sale that takes a lot of time. The first stage of pre-sale nut preparation is drying, during which workers control the quality of the nut. Humidity indicators of the finished product are pretty important aspects. After drying, additional devices keep control of the level of humidity. After that, the nut falls on the calibrator, vibrating screen, where it is divided into fractions and separates small dust particles and other extra elements. Then the nuts fall into the box. In addition, a nut can be processed further for longer storage. And the final stage, ready-made to ship.
Andriy LAPA, the founder of Orehovod, also raised the issue of nut processing. The specialist covered the topic of processing nuts.
During the conference day, by tradition, equipment and technologies were introduced by Ukrainian and European manufacturers and suppliers who presented their technological innovations, solutions, and products at the exhibition: Poliv-Service, Timak Agro Ukraine, entrepreneur Lapa Andriy Mykolayovych, Vodovid, BTU-CENTER, BASF, Novosad, Sewing Equipment Center, RODONIT AGRO, EFT PLUS, Profpoliv, GARDEN TOOLS Ukraine, Ramos, SmartAgro.
The forum also included an exhibition of processed products based on nuts, also beverages, fruits, and nut seedlings. It should be noted, about the walnut jam which presented by a farm "Fruit Paradise". Farmer Mykhailo Kostiuk also introduced drinks based on black walnut. Nuts and nut seedlings were introduced by the company "Batkiv Sad", "Impak", Oleg Lishchuk, farm "KOM", "Organic Berry". The exhibition of drinks was attended by the company "Honey Mezynsky", Guild of Medovary of Ukraine.
At the end of the plenary session, a traditional lottery was drawn, with presenting gifts from our partners of the media group "Technologies and Innovations" including valuable gifts that were gifted for guests by Farmer.ua, Timak Agro, Buhler, Orehovod. Also, several participants received certificates for subscribing to magazines of the media group "Technologies and Innovations."
- Thank you to the organizers for a nice conference. I wish the audience a good harvest! - emphasized Halyna MATUSEVYCH, a representative of the company "Rodonit" who received a gift certificate for subscription to magazines "Horticulture and Viticulture & Nut Wood & Drinks. Technologies and Innovations."
The owner of the farm "Tviy Gorih", Ivan Yukal, who received a certificate for 2 thousand UAH. from Farmer.ua, gave wise advice to forum participants:
- “Who owns the information, owns the world. The wise learn from the mistakes of others. Therefore, I wish everyone to learn hard how to grow nuts.”
Business Tour To The Nut Enterprise of Zhytomyr Region
The next day included visits to the leading agro farms of the region within the traditional part of the conferences from the media group "Technologies and Innovations." This time, on the 3rd of September, the participants visited a promising enterprise in the Zhytomyr region - "Nut of Polissya" (Khomutets village).
"Nut of Polissya" is a nut farm covering 55 hectares of hazelnuts of Italian varieties. Such varieties as Barcelona, Tonda Gentile Romana, and others are presented in the hazelnut orchard. The head of the nut orchard noted that almost all the seedlings were purchased abroad from the company CORYLUS EST S.R.L (Italy).
The business tour participants were able to look at first-hand growing hazelnuts in the shape of a bush. It is pretty rare for Ukraine, according to the owner of this farm. As a well-known fact that mostly nut growers now grow nut tree-shaped.
- I am gladly meet you in my nut orchard today. My orchard is only four years old. Some seedlings are only one - year old. Gladly to share my own experience in growing hazelnuts, show our equipment, irrigation system, - told Alexander Voloshenko.
Moreover, participants got acquainted with the sprinkler irrigation system, installed by the company "Eucalyptus P", the main technological partner of the All-Ukrainian Nut Forum. The founder of the company Vitaliy Razkevich told the guests about all the features of that irrigation system.
The farm installed an automated fertilizer supply system. The supplying process is controlled by sensors that are built into the system. We installed a 5-component fertilizer supply system in the orchard. It means that five different fertilizer components can be filed simultaneously. Moreover, this system has automatic mixing of fertilizers. The irrigation system is also automated, with signal transmission from the controller to the solenoid-operated valve located in the field. It is a development of the company "Eucalyptus P" which we are proud of very much- told Vitaly Razkevich.
The specialist also presented the weather station to the participants of the business and told them about the principle of its work. There were a lot of questions about this installation.
Each forum participant gained new experience, knowledge, and contacts. So, during the forum, the nut growers discussed many current issues and exchanged experiences.
- I`m just learning the nut growing and grow only 14 varieties of hazelnuts, in total 250 bushes, in the Rivne region. I expected to get to know well-known, experienced nut growers at the forum to take over their experience. I liked that the speakers declared a lot of ideas to deal with various issues. Sharing experiences is very valuable. That`s why I am here - Yuriy IVAKHNENKO shared his impressions during visiting forum.
After summarizing the informative and eventful of the two days of the forum, we can say that Ukraine has all the conditions for nut cultivation thanks to fertile soils and a temperate climate. In Ukraine, the walnut is not the only popular grown nut crop, but also hazelnuts, almonds, even pistachios, and peanuts. More and more companies are installing equipment for sorting and processing nuts every year.
We are glad to announce the start of the registration for the VI International Scientific and Practical Conference “Technologies and Innovations: From The Land To The Finished Product. Pome Fruits” to be held on October 28-29 in Vinnytsia. This year the program of the event will be eventful and larger. Keep an eye on our news! And, you can make registration to be a part of a large-scale event, which will bring together leading experts in the berry industry not only from Ukraine but also from Europe.