Kherson watermelons received an official geographical indication

The Ministry of Economy of Ukraine reports that the Ukrainian National Office of Intellectual Property and Innovation has registered a new geographical indication - "Kherson Watermelon". It will be worn by melons grown on the sandy soils of the Tavria region on the territory of the Skadovsky, Kherson and Kakhovsky districts of the Kherson region.

It should be noted that the local watermelon is characterized by a high level of sugar and dense flesh, and the skin of the watermelon is green with pale green stripes. The new status provides producers with additional advantages, increasing their competitiveness on the domestic and international markets. Local communities will receive additional tax revenues, which will contribute to the economic development of the region. And for consumers, this is a guarantee of high quality and safety of products, noted Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine Vitaly Kindrativ.

It is known that the application for registration of the geographical indication was submitted by the public union "Association of Kherson Watermelon Producers", whose representatives are currently defending their native land from the Russian invaders at the front.

Let us add that a geographical indication is the name of a place that identifies a product that originates from a certain geographical area and has a special quality, reputation or other characteristics due mainly to this place of origin, and at least one of the stages of its production (production/mining and processing or cooking) is carried out in a defined geographical area.

In September 2019, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a law on the protection of geographical names of goods. Geographical indication in the draft law refers to a name that identifies a product that originates from a specific geographic location and that has a special quality, reputation, or other characteristics associated with the place of origin. Ukraine has undertaken to protect European geographical names from counterfeiting. Ukrainian brand names have also received legal protection in the European Union.

It should be noted that information on 3,133 geographical indications has been entered into the State Register of Geographical Indications of Ukraine. 37 objects are registered directly under the national procedure, among which 29 geographical indications are exclusively for goods originating from the territory of Ukraine. Examples of Ukrainian geographical indications: "Melitopol cherry", "Krolevetski towels", "Petrykiv painting", "Transcarpathian wine" and "Hutsul brindsia". Recently, the Russians stole the Ukrainian geographical brand "Melitopol cherry" - the Ukrainian geographical indication "Melitopol cherry" was registered in the Russian register. The registration indicates the Russian affiliation of the brand. This was reported by the Rospatent intellectual property service. According to the collaborator Dmytro Vorona, who at one time was a deputy minister in three Ukrainian ministries, and then switched to the side of the enemy, the appropriation of the Ukrainian brand is aimed at "better integrating" the occupied territories into Russia. In turn, Rospatent stated that it is not going to stop only at cherries and will continue to steal other Ukrainian geographical indications.

It should be noted that the Ukrainian city of Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia region, has been under Russian occupation since February 26, 2022.

By the way, prices for watermelons in Ukraine have dropped by a third since the beginning of last week. As analysts of the EastFruit project report, the improvement of weather conditions in almost the entire territory of the country allowed Ukrainian watermelon producers to resume active harvesting operations, which led to an increase in the supply of this product on the market. Producers in all regions of Ukraine have already started mass harvesting of melons. Currently, prices for watermelons on the domestic market have already dropped to UAH 3-8 per kilogram, which is on average 30% cheaper than at the end of the last working week. The situation is further complicated by the fact that the bulk of the supply is large-caliber products, the demand for which is rather weak. Wholesale companies and retail chains reduce purchases of such watermelon to a minimum, citing extremely low rates of retail sales.

Thus, watermelon in Ukraine is currently 60% cheaper on average than at the beginning of August 2023. At the same time, industry experts do not predict a noticeable improvement in the market situation. According to them, only owners of high-quality watermelons will be able to raise prices, and the supply of such products on the market is quite limited. Prices for watermelons weighing more than 5 kg will continue to be at a low level, as farmers will make concessions to buyers and try to speed up the pace of sale of available volumes of products.

In fact, prices for local watermelons in Ukraine continue to plummet almost daily.

As analysts of the EastFruit project report, today's price tags in this market segment are already much lower than last year's level. Analysts identified the main reasons for such a sharp drop in prices in the watermelon segment this season. First of all, it is the relocation of the production of this culture in Ukraine. After the Russian occupation of large areas of Kherson and Zaporozhye regions of Ukraine, cultivation of melon crops was actively started in all central regions of Ukraine, and in some places in the western region. The weather conditions of this spring and in the first half of the summer of the current year were very favorable for the vegetation of the plants, and farmers expected to collect high yields of watermelons in the current season. An additional load on the market is provided by stable supplies of watermelons to Ukraine from the countries of Central Asia, where these products are currently much more affordable and are characterized by higher quality indicators.

It is worth noting that the area of ​​fields under watermelons and melons in Ukraine this year is the smallest in history - watermelons have become half of what they were before the full-scale invasion. This year, watermelons and melons are grown in Ukraine on 30,000 hectares, which is less than in 2022 (33,900 hectares). In 2021, melons accounted for 61.8 thousand hectares. Despite the fact that the harvesting of watermelons started a few weeks earlier this year, at the beginning of the season supermarkets presented mostly imported watermelons. However, imported watermelons are more expensive than Ukrainian ones. So, at the beginning of this week, one of the retail chains sold Italian watermelons at a price of UAH 50 per kg, while in Kyiv retail prices for Ukrainian watermelons are UAH 23-25 ​​per kg. Wholesale is sometimes purchased for 10 hryvnias.