February 17 2015, 09:40 Fito-Mag

Russian fruit importers face problems with imports of Conference pears

Russian importers have faced serious troubles with compensation of lack of supply of European pears. Unlike apples, which supply is partially compensated by shipments from domestic growers as well as Serbia, China, Chile and Argentina, the situation in the pear market is more difficult. As a result, some importers have fully excluded pears from their fruit sales range.

The EU countries usually accounted for about 70% of the total annual supply of imported pears in Russia. Importers were especially interested in Conference pears of Dutch and Belgian origin in winter and spring. For the present, purchasers have not found any alternative to those pears despite low volumes of re-exports through Serbia and Belarus, which are insufficient to cover retail chains' demand even partially. As a result, prices of Conference pears have at least doubled in Russia compared with the same period of the previous season.