May 16 2011, 10:11 Fruit-Inform

Fruits and vegetables keeping on setting new price records in Ukraine

Fruit-Inform Project's fruit and vegetable index shows that fruits and vegetables have again increased in price in Ukraine last week. This time a week-on-week growth of prices amounted to 1.4% and was caused by price increases in all market segments. In such a way, Ukrainian consumers' fruit and vegetable basket kept on setting new price records in the country.

Borsch vegetables (onions, cabbage, beets, carrots) and potatoes increased in price averagely by 0.9% last week, primarily due to continued growth of prices for beets and carrots which are mainly imported now. Greenhouse vegetable prices slightly increased too (by 1.3%), although price trends in this market segment were multidirectional that is indicative of probable decrease of prices for these products in the nearest time.

We should also note of 4% increase of fruit prices last week due to growth of citrus and apple prices. Moreover, strengthening of the US dollar in Ukraine can lead to further increase of prices for imported fruits and vegetables in the near future.

Fruit-Inform Project's analysts think that seasonal decrease of fruit and vegetable prices can be delayed by 10-14 days this year due to cold spring and late start of early produce supply to the market.

The only product category to have decreased in price were garden strawberries. However, strawberry prices remain too high for this period of season due to relatively cold weather causing delays in crop ripening in southern regions of Ukraine.

More detailed information about Ukraine's 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.