Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
Crimean apricot growers satisfied with price results of their season
The majority of Crimean apricot growers have finished their season, according to Fruit-Inform.
Weather conditions were not favorable for apricot production in the peninsula this year. We would remind you that apricot orchards significantly suffered from spring frosts with large growers assessing their losses at up to 70-80%, and small farms saying of 100% losses. The Crimean apricot sector was also hit by a rainfall observed in Crimea during harvesting campaign.
Meanwhile, apricot prices were rather high this year. Despite the fact of apricot volumes being not enough to ship to mainland Russia, Crimean growers were successfully selling their fruits in the local market maintaining prices at RUB 100-110/kg (USD 1.51-1.66/kg). Prices went down only in the end of the season and varied between RUB 65-80/kg (USD 0.98-1.21/kg) due to rather low quality of produce. In general, growers were satisfied with pricing this year.
It should also be noted that there were almost no apricot sales registered last year, as spring frosts had been fatal for almost all apricot farms in 2015.