The famous Melitopil cherry (Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine) has not yet matured, and the Russian invaders already have grandiose plans for it, writes Zprz.City.
The Russian occupiers do not even try to hide that they are simply robbing the temporarily occupied territories. Now they are already boasting about how they will take Melitopil cherries to Russia and sell them there.
Thus, one of the Russian media reported, with reference to the head of the occupational “department of melioration and water management”, that they plan to start bringing cherries from Melitopil to Russia in mid-June.
Last year, they say, there were difficulties with logistics, but this year the occupiers claim that they have figured out how to deal with this tender fruit.
Separate columns are organized for farmers so that the perishable fruit can “promptly enter the Russian market.”
Cherries are going to be taken through Crimea to St. Petersburg, as well as through Mariupol – in the direction of Rostov-on-Don.
Melitopil farmers are afraid that they will still not be able to earn anything again. Last year, the Russians took fruits and vegetables from farmers for next to nothing and there was no room for negotiation. Many farmers have abandoned their orchards fleeing from the Russian occupation and the occupiers took over it. However, such orchards will yield very little if anything as occupiers do not know much about growing cherries. Local growers also have no access to modern crop protection and lack labor as well as motivation to invest into production of cherries.
Prior to the full-scale invasion Melitopil was the main supplier of sweet cherries to all regions of Ukraine and exported cherries to many countries in the region. Before 2014 Melitopil cherries were very popular in Russia as well and Russians paid a premium price for it. Now they can just steal it negotiating using their main argument – machine guns.
