November 19 2012, 14:13 Fito-Mag

Serbian apples losing their position in the Russian market

Sales of Serbian apples are rather weak in Russia in this season. According to Fruit-Inform analysts, unlike last year, Russian purchasers' interest to buying Serbian produce has been gradually decreasing since the beginning of this season due to starting prices of Serbian apples being higher than competitors' ones. For example, in the beginning of the current season, Moldovan and Polish apples were sold at 0.45-0.59 euro/kg, while Serbian produce was offered at 0.69-0.79 euro/kg. Moreover, Serbian apples were growing in price within a season. For comparison: last year, prices of Serbian produce varied between 0.54-0.69 euro/kg that was almost the same compared with prices of Polish and Moldovan competitors.

Such a price policy of Serbian sellers is a result of lower apple production in the country that also affected Serbian exports to Russia: in the first 3 months of the season, Serbia's apple exports to Russia went down by 30% year-on-year.

We would remind you that WAPA estimates this year's Serbian apple production to fall by 15% to 221,000 tonnes.