Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
Potato cheapened in Ukraine abruptly
Past week the prices on potato dropped down in Ukraine that is a rather untypical trend for the end of March. Usually the potato reserves have been depleted to this time, so the producers may count on the increase of the average price on this commodity.
This year the situation on potato market is completely different from the past years. First, potato production in 2004 exceeded on 12% the far from being deficient 2003 harvest, and it caused the significant growth of reserves. At the same time the growth of incomes of the Ukrainian population led to the demand decrease on potato.
Besides, the potato prices have been obviously overstated during the recent weeks; the volumes of potato reserves have not been taken into account. When warm weather came, the producers hurried up to sell the stored potato on purpose to avoid the quality losses; as a result the number of supplies on market increased abruptly. Past week the retail prices on potato decreased on 10% in average in Ukraine and on 20% and more in the oblasts where the potato overproduction is observed. The average wholesale price on this commodity fluctuated within USD $ 0.09-0.15/kg depending on the region; in the deficit regions the prices sometimes exceeded USD $ 0.18/kg.
So at the present moment a great number of marketable potato is supplied in huge volumes on market that implicates the further price decrease in the nearest future.