Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
Crimean strawberries unable to arrive in mainland Ukraine
According to Fruit-Inform, Crimean growers have started their strawberry campaign. First small quantities of berries are successfully sold in the peninsula. Meanwhile, Crimean farmers will most likely face serious problems with sales of their produce in mainland Ukraine in the nearest time.
For the present, growers' prices of greenhouse strawberries vary between UAH 40-50/kg (EUR 2.43-3.03/kg) that is almost similar to the price levels in the beginning of the previous season. The supply is currently rather limited, and farmers face no problems with sales in the peninsula. However, in the mid-May farms plan to start the season of field-grown strawberries that have previously been sold to middlemen from other Ukrainian regions. Furthermore, self-appointed authorities of Crimea have recently organized a “state border” between the peninsula and mainland Ukraine with all border passage procedures taking up to 12 hours.
Ukrainian wholesale companies say of trade in Crimean strawberries and stonefruits to be economically unviable in this season due to such complicated logistics.
“There are significant queues of trucks at “the border” taking 10-12 hours to pass”, says a market participant. “It is almost impossible to ship strawberries, a perishable product, to mainland Ukraine under those conditions”.
Farmers also doubt that they will be able to solve the problem by shipments to the Russian Federation again due to complicated logistics. Queues at Kerch ferry line take several days to pass that is unacceptable for strawberries and other soft fruits.
How will the occupation of Crimea affect the Ukrainian berry business? This and many other questions will be answered at the 5th International Conference “Berries of Ukraine-2014: Frozen Produce & Fresh Market” that is to take place on May 22-23, 2014, Feride Plaza, Vinnytsia, Ukraine. All information about the event is available here. To take part in the conference, please fill out an application form, or contact International Relations Department of Fruit-Inform:
tel: +380 562 320795 (ext. - 341)
cell: +380 96 5836323 (Ievgen Kuzin)
e-mail: [email protected]