Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
Ukraine: banana imports up in April
Ukraine has increased banana imports by 42% year-on-year in April 2016, according to Fruit-Inform.
The import volumes totaled 17,000 tons against 12,000 tons in the same month of the previous year.
However, cumulative imports in the period from September 2015 to April 2016 have reached record low 121,000 tons, a decrease of 2% year-on-year.
The market participants connect a decrease in banana imports with availability of large volumes of less expensive apples (a traditional competitor of bananas) in the Ukrainian market. For comparison, bananas are offered at UAH 26-28/kg (EUR 0.92-0.99/kg) now, while apple prices vary between UAH 4-10/kg (EUR 0.14-0.35/kg), depending on quality, variety and country of origin.