December 27 2010, 10:38 Fruit-Inform

Mandarins keeping on ousting oranges from Ukrainian market

According to information of Fruit-Inform Project, mandarins are keeping on consolidating their positions as the most popular citrus fruits at Ukrainian market. Sales during Pre-New Year period are the most indicative of this trend, as usually citrus fruit sales volumes grow several times against average annual level.

Currently, mandarin supply at Ukraine’s wholesale markets is several times higher than orange supply, and mandarin assortment is simply huge! Besides this, it is of great importance that prices for mandarins are averagely 5-7% lower than for oranges. In such a way, mandarins are more attractive for consumers under the conditions of economic recession.

From our point of view, breakthrough of mandarins in recent years is caused by growth of assortment and expansion of supplies geography. If during Soviet period, mandarins were supplied almost exclusively from Georgia, then nowadays, large volumes of these fruits are supplied also from Turkey, Pakistan, Spain, Italy, Argentina, Greece, Israel, Egypt, Cyprus, and South Africa. Smaller volumes are imported from Portugal, China, Morocco, Uruguay, and even Peru and Syria.

Seedless easy-peeler mandarin varieties are especially in high demand among Ukrainians. Besides this, more and more frequently, Ukrainian consumers distinguish “mandarins”, “tangerines”, and “clementines”. This is indicated by the fact that retail traders began to use actively these descriptions.