May 5 2011, 10:43 Fruit-Inform

Record 22% increase of fruit and vegetable prices in Ukraine over April

Fruit-Inform Project's fruit and vegetable index shows that another increase of fruit and vegetable prices was registered in Ukraine last week notwithstanding expected lowering of prices after Easter holidays. Fruit and vegetable inflation amounted to 2.7% last week. In such a way, Ukrainian consumers had to pay for main fruits and vegetables already 21.8% more in April than in March.

“Main fruits and vegetables have never before cost more than in April 2011”, Andriy Yarmak, Head of Fruit-Inform Project, says. “However, the new record is unlikely to be set in the nearest time, because we expect decrease of fruit and vegetable prices in May (if there will be no natural disasters) thanks to wider range of early produce in the market and decrease of greenhouse vegetable prices”, the expert continues.

The largest contribution to April's increase of fruit and vegetable prices was made by traditional vegetables and potatoes which grew in price by 28%. The sharpest increase was registered for carrot prices (55% over a month). Potatoes and white cabbage became more expensive by 33% and 20% respectively. The least increase of prices was registered for onions (8% over April notwithstanding decrease of them in EU).

Greenhouse vegetables grew in price by 9%, fruits – by 8%. The main cause of increase of fruit prices were apples which kept on growing in price. According to Fruit-Inform Project, apple stocks in EU (particularly in Poland) were the lowest over recent years.

The only product to be keeping on decreasing in price were garden strawberries which fell in price by more than one third over a month. However, strawberry consumption remained quite low, so this product did not have any considerable influence on the situation in fruit and vegetable market.

More detailed information about berry season prospects and new market niches in this dynamically growing segment will be included in speeches of leading experts of this business during the Second International Conference “Berries of Ukraine-2011: Freezing and Fresh Market”. Application form is available through this link.