November 16 2012, 09:53 Fito-Mag

Will domestic apples be able to compete with imported ones in Russian market?

Despite Russian apple market participants' expectations, trade is now rather stagnant.

High competition between domestic and imported apples always was one of the main peculiarities of the Russian market for these fruits. However, this year's trading conditions have become even more difficult for domestic farmers. Thanks to Russia's accession to the WTO that led to lower import duties on apples in the country, competition in the market has grown several times. In addition, both Russia and Poland (the main supplier of imported apples) have rather high apple production this year that is proven by rather low apple prices and excess supply of produce in the Russian market as of early November.

Moreover, even lower prices that almost always were Russian farmers' main advantage does not save the situation with sales. Despite Polish and Moldovan apples being averagely more expensive (0.37-0.50 euro/kg) than Russian produce in this season, the demand for them is higher. Average ex-farm price of Russian apples is 0.37 euro/kg, but they are seriously inferior in quality to imported produce.