Ukraine has a catastrophic shortage of potato storage facilities – farmers are losing millions of tons of crops: Rybalko
4 December 2025 20:04
The Ukrainian potato industry suffers from a shortage of modern storage facilities, which leads to massive crop damage and makes it impossible to develop the potato processing and export market. This was stated in an interview with the YouTube channel "Komersant Ukrainian" youTube channel, Serhiy Rybalko, a member of the Board of Directors of the Ukrainian Association of Potato Producers, said in an interview.
“The lack of potato storage facilities is a huge problem. Today we have storage facilities that can store 300-350 thousand tons of potatoes. There is a shortage of about the same number of storages. And, by the way, the storage facilities we have are not state-of-the-art,” he said.
Read us on Telegram: important topics – without censorship
Due to the lack of potato storage facilities, a significant part of the Ukrainian harvest is simply lost, the farmer continued.
“Real statistics show that we produce about 8-9 million tons of potatoes a year. Of these, we eat only 3 million tons. The rest – 5-6 million tons – is simply wasted or used for livestock feed. Actually, due to the lack of potato storage facilities,” he added.
Watch us on YouTube: important topics – without censorship
Earlier, Sergiy Rybalko said that the lack of irrigation systems and modern potato storage facilities jeopardize the development of Ukrainian potato growing. Climate change and freshwater shortages threaten the stability of harvests.
