December 3 2013, 14:00 Fruit-Inform

Ongoing increase in potato prices in Ukraine

Potato prices have already grown 5 times compared with last year and keep on increasing, according to Fruit-Inform price monitoring.

Current ex-works prices of potatoes vary between 0.35-0.40 euro/kg; high-quality produce is offered at no lower than 0.43-0.44 euro/kg. However, buyers face serious troubles with purchasing necessary amounts of high-quality potatoes even at those prices, as farmers expect a further increase in the price levels and hope to compensate losses incurred in the past 2 years in that way.

Potato prices have gone up by 13% over several previous days, and last year's prices account for just a fifth of current levels. However, in the same period of the previous season, potato prices were record low and covered only a half of production expenses. Accordingly, having no funds for full field operations, farmers had to reduce areas under potatoes, which also affected potato yields and quality. Furthermore, unfavorable weather conditions (incessant rains in September 2013 especially) made their negative contribution too.