February 3 2011, 14:30 Fruit-Inform

When Ukraine will begin onion imports?

Analysts of Fruit-Inform Project note that Ukraine has not started active onion imports yet notwithstanding market participants' apprehension concerning dramatically low onion production. In such a way, our August forecasts of are once again corroborated, and, according to our estimates, onion production was 5% higher than the in previous year.

Currently any producers' attempts to increase internal prices for onions lead to sharp decrease of sales due to sufficient supply level. At the same time, there is some shortage of high-quality onions beginning to be felt. However, imports of this produce are currently complicated due to high costs of customs clearance which we have written about many times.

As a result, onion imports in the first half of the current season were 17 times lower than in the same period of the season 2009/10. At the same time, importers are conducting negotiations on onion supplies during spring period; however, turmoil in Egypt and uncertainty in price prospects in the domestic market somewhat complicate planning of such supplies.

More detail information about whether Ukraine is going to begin onion imports in this season (and if yes, than when?), as well as about production and price prospects in the new season will be presented during the third international conference “Potato and Vegetables of Ukraine-2011”.

Participation in the conference was already confirmed by many leading vegetable and potato producers of Ukraine, as well as major suppliers of seeds, materials, machinery and equipment for growing, storage and post-harvest handling of produce. The general sponsor of the conference is Bayer company which includes one of the leaders in commercial vegetable seed market – Nunhems company.

The conference is to take place at Shuvar wholesale market, Lvov, Ukraine, February 24-25, 2011. On-line registration is available through this link.