Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
Ukraine: fresh produce price index down for 1st time over 4 weeks
Fruit-Inform Ukrainian fresh produce price index fell by 10% last week (for the first time since November 2014), after an increase of 7.8% a week before.
«The price index went down thanks to stabilization in the Ukrainian hryvnia exchange rates, which resulted in a decrease in exporters' demand for produce. In addition, there were problems with shipments to Russia through Crimea due to tougher customs clearance procedures», says Ms. Tetiana Getman, Head of Fruit-Inform. «A seasonal factor should also be noted: prices of cucumbers fell by a third due to growth in their supply».
In general, greenhouse vegetables became 16.3% less expensive. The price index of traditional vegetables has also gone down by 1.3% for the first time over the past few months thanks to a fall in onion prices. The fruit price index kept on decreasing after a fall of 5.5% last week. At the same time, apple prices were stable in the majority of cases. A gradual decrease in the domestic supply of apples should also be noted; therefore, imports of Polish apples will only be growing in the nearest time.
Potatoes remained the least expensive product in the Ukrainian fresh produce price index: UAH 2.50/kg (USD 0.11/kg) in main producing regions, half as high in UAH as a year before, and 80% lower in USD, an extremely low level taking into account an increase of 300-350% in growing costs expected in the following season.
We would remind you that more detailed information about current developments in the Russian and Ukrainian fruit and vegetable market is available for the subscribers of Fruit-Inform service packages.