Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
Russia: banana prices twice as high as registered a year before
According to Fruit-Inform, bananas became at least 15% more expensive in Russia over the past week.
For the present, importers offer those fruits at RUB 76-82/kg (USD 0.94-1.02/kg) and higher. For comparison, prices were not higher than RUB 77/kg (USD 0.95/kg) a week before.
A jump in prices is observed due to further devaluation of the Russian ruble. In addition, the situation is connected with higher price levels in Ecuador due to the inter-season period there.
As a result, current banana prices are already 2.2 times as high as registered a year before, when prices were not higher than RUB 38/kg (USD 0.47/kg).
Russian importers are seriously concerned about such trends. Under conditions of Russians' critically low paying capacity, they have to compensate an increase in prices by their own margin. The majority of traders say that to maintain relations with suppliers and buyers is more important for them than profit; therefore, they often are ready to operate at no margin or even below their costs in some cases.