July 8 2011, 10:20 Fruit-Inform

Raspberries seriously suffered from hail and pouring rains in Serbia

According to Fruit-Inform Project, pouring rains and hail in major producing regions of Serbia caused serious damages to raspberry plantations in the country. Some farmers reported of up to half of crop had been lost, though experts think that, in the worst case, Serbia's raspberry production will be 15-20% less than normal.

Serbia is the largest exporter of frozen raspberries in the world supplying about 95% of its produce to the EU market. Annually the country exports about 70,000 tonnes of frozen raspberries that is almost 2 times more than annual exports of Poland and China, the most important competitors of Serbia in this sector.

The latest developments in the country point to prospects of high prices for frozen raspberries in Europe in the new season.