OREANDA-NEWS. July 7, 2008. The tomato harvest campaign has started in Turkmenistan. The first caravans of the trucks loaded with ripe tomatoes deliver vegetables to the receiving points of the Ruhubelent JSC, the central factory of the Food Industry Association of Turkmenistan. The local workers are planning to harvest 40,000 tons of tomatoes this season.

The vegetable growing associations maintain the high pace of the campaign. The Ruhubelent JSC and the enterprises of the Food Industry Association are to harvest 40 percent of total production each. The rest will be harvested by the farmers associations and tenant farmers. The vegetable growers of the Ahal Velayat, the leading tomato producer in the country, have every chance to achieve the outstanding labour results. They supply tomatoes to the markets in Ashgabat and the processing enterprises.

According to specialists, the proper care for the areas under crops and cultivation of the high-quality tomato varieties such as Shasta, Benito, Rio Grande, Heinz, produced by the Royal Sluis Company (Netherlands), which are resistant to diseases, plant pests and drought and can be cultivated in hothouses as well as open ground, helped to harvest a rich crop.

The enterprises of the Ruhubelent JSC receive and process tomatoes of this year’s harvest gathered in the fields in the Ruhabat Etrap. The Food Industry Association of Turkmenistan settles the accounts with local vegetable growers at the receiving points. The tomato harvest campaign will last till the first frosts.