Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
In Ukraine 2004 prices on fruit got up and on vegetables and potato - down
State Statistics Committee placed on its web-site the final summary of consumer prices in 2004. According to this information, the inflation was 12.3% in 2004 that is 4.1% more comparing to 2003 when this figure was 8.2%.
Price decrease on fruits played its role in inflation growth in 2004 - according to State Statistics Committee figures, it amounted to 17.3% per year. Price growth for fruit commodities, to the opinion of AMP (Agricultural Marketing Project) specialists, is caused by acreage contraction under fruit orchards and simultaneous demand growth for fruit commodities in the country in line with population incomes growth.
At the same time the "second bread" for the Ukrainians - potato - got down in price, according to State Statistics Committee figures, on 45.8% comparing to the previous 2003 year, this figure approximately corresponds to AMP specialists evaluations. Price decrease on potato is connected with lowering of consumption rates for this commodity in the country and simultaneous potato production growth observed in 2004.
According to evaluations carried out by State Statistics Committee, vegetables cheapened in 2004 too - price decrease amounted to 26%. Price decrease on vegetables, to the opinion of AMP experts, is determined by the continuing vegetable production growth and improvement of the production technologies; this fact let the producers reduce expenses per one item of the produced commodities. We can not but mention that during the general harvesting 2004 of cucumber and tomato - the major vegetable crops - prices on these commodities were 2-3 times higher than usual because of the unfavorable weather conditions. Greenhouse vegetables have started to be supplied at the end of 2004 on the higher than usual price too. So such a significant price decrease, to the opinion of AMP analysts, may be referred only to onion, white-headed cabbage and carrot, which have really cheapened much.