Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
Long-expected change happened in Ukraine's market for fruits and vegetables
Fruit-Inform Project's fruit and vegetable index shows that last week fruits and vegetables have finally decreased in price after long period of price growth. The week-on-week decrease amounted to 2.8% thanks to growth in supply of early produce and greenhouse vegetables.
The most important influence on fruit and vegetable price reduction was exerted by greenhouse vegetables which averagely fell in price by 27.3% last week. Greenhouse cucumber price decrease amounted to almost 40% mostly thanks to cucumbers grown in plastic greenhouses in southern regions of Ukraine having appeared in the market.
Traditional borsch vegetables (onions, cabbage, beets, carrots) and potatoes have slightly decreased in price (by 2.1%). Cabbage made the greatest contribution to this price reduction, as it fell in price by 23% last week. We should note that early cabbage could be purchased wholesale at UAH 4.50/kg (EUR 0.40/kg) last week, though late cabbage prices were as well higher than UAH 10/kg (EUR 0.89/kg). Moreover, prices were of declarative character, as consumers preferred early produce. As to traditional root vegetables (beets and carrots), they kept on increasing in price last week. However, the market was more and more actively supplied with early produce which is for the present more expensive than late one, but further increase of supply will lead to leveling of prices in the nearest time.
At the same time, fruits did not make Ukrainian consumers happy, as they increased in price by another 0.9% last week. Even garden strawberry prices slightly grew. “This year garden strawberries will begin to be picked from fields in southern regions of Ukraine only in a week”, Andriy Yarmak, head of Fruit-Inform Project, says. “This means that strawberry harvesting and mass consumption season will be shorter this year, although production volumes will not decrease. So June's fall of garden strawberry prices may be even sharper than usual”, the expert continues.