January 17 2012, 10:45 Fruit-Inform

Traditional vegetables and potatoes keep on decreasing in price in Ukraine

Fruit-Inform's fruit and vegetable index shows that the value of Ukrainians' potato and vegetable basket decreased by 4.7% last week. In such a way, potatoes and traditional vegetables (onions, white cabbages, red beets, carrots) have kept their price reduction trend since May 2011.

“Unfortunately, the majority of the market participants did not listen to our advices not to increase planted areas, which had been announced already in December 2010”, Tetiana Getman, Head of Fruit-Inform, says. “In such a way, as we forecast, prices for traditional vegetables and potatoes keep on decreasing in Ukraine without any prospects of their growth”, the expert continues.

As a result, currently, farmers sell traditional vegetables at prices being 5 times lower year-on-year and potatoes – at prices being 4.5 times lower year-on-year! Moreover, the current vegetable price level is lower than even in the season 2008/09 when Ukraine for the first time faced serious overproduction of traditional vegetables. Furthermore, it is very difficult to say when wholesale prices for potatoes were lower than UAH 1.00/kg (EUR 0.10/kg) in Ukraine, especially taking into account a growth of all production technology costs in 2009-2011, which reached 60-80%.

More detailed information about Ukrainian and Russian fruit and vegetable markets is available for subscribers of Fruit-Inform Weekly service package.

We would also remind you that the Ukrainian potato and vegetable business will gather at the 4th International Conference “Potatoes and Vegetables of Ukraine – 2012”, President Hotel, Kiev, Ukraine, February 16-17, 2012. The event is supported by Ukrainian Association of Potato Producers and Ukrainian Association of Wholesale Markets and will be attended by the biggest vegetable and potato producers, suppliers of seeds, machinery, equipment, the largest purchasers of produce and companies interested in investing in the Ukrainian vegetable and potato business. To join them, please, fill out an application form.