Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
Ukraine: prices of seed potatoes up 20%
According to Fruit-Inform, prices of seed potatoes have gone up averagely by 20% in Ukraine in the current season, which will seriously impact production costs in autumn 2014.
For the present, high-quality seed potatoes are sold at 0.41-0.65 euro/kg, depending on variety. The demand for seed potatoes is rather high now, and the supply of high-quality products is significantly lower year-on-year.
Elite seed potatoes of Dutch and German origin are offered at about 1.14-1.22 euro/kg in Ukraine with their supply and demand being well balanced. Some growers avoid concluding contracts with suppliers of imported seed potatoes due to unstable hryvnia to euro exchange rate.
Seed potatoes are one of the main elements in potato production costs in Ukraine. Their high prices significantly increase potato growing risks, as seed potato costs will amount to about 0.05-0.08 euro per kg of the end product, while full potato production costs are expected to be record high in Ukraine.