Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
Prices on some vegetables may increase in April-May
First results of the survey conducted by Agricultural Marketing Project (AMP) on purpose to evaluate the reserves of fruit and vegetable commodities show that on many positions they are lesser than the previous year reserves. It means that before the commodities of the new harvest come on market, the price on many vegetables may increase. At the same time despite of the lesser reserves stored by the producers, the vegetables are available on bases and the specialized storages owned by the wholesalers - and in a larger volumes than in the previous year. It will be the major restrictive factor for the rapid price increase.
According to the evaluations of AMP experts, the cabbage reserves stored by farmers are in 3-4 times lesser than in the previous year; but we should remember that past year the major part of these reserves has not been sold.
At present moment the cabbage reserves are sufficient to satisfy almost completely the demand on this commodity; still to the opinion of AMP experts, the cabbage supply decrease prognosed in the end of February-March will foster the price increase. Our forecast may be seriously corrected due to the weather conditions. If the spring is early, so the cabbage price growth may stop in the second half of April; if not, the cabbage price may rapidly go up till the end of April 2005.
The prices on carrot and red beets may also increase a little, cause the reserves of these commodities in some regions are lesser than in the previous year. It is interesting to mention that at the present moment the prices on carrot and red beets are approximately the same as they were a year ago.
The analysts think that now there are no serious reasons for the significant price increase on onion, though a definite seasonal price growth is still possible. Onion supply volumes are still significantly prevailing over the supplies of the previous year, and the price on this commodity is twice lower than in February 2004. There are lots of comparatively large onion supplies on market on price starting from USD $ 0.15/kg.
The experts also note that in the whole the quality of the stored cabbage, carrot, red beets and onion is rather high. The low-quality reserves have been sold before.
To the opinion of AMP analysts, we should not expect the rapid price growth on potato too, cause potato production went up significantly in 2004. The volumes of this commodity supplied on market are rather great, and the farmers sell potato on USD $ 0.07-0.11/kg, At present time the potato price is lower the level of the previous year.