Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
The price on greenhouse tomato is not lowering in Odesa
The market operators are aware of the fact that during the winter-spring period the retail price on greenhouse cucumber was usually on USD $ 0.19-0.59/kg than in the same period of time past year. It is interesting that past year starting from the middle May the steady trend of retail price decrease was observed. During the period of 05/14/04 to 06/04/04 the prices on this commodity dropped down from USD $ 1.68-1.78/kg to 1.28-1.38/kg on the central Odesa market "Privoz"; nothing like this happens this year. The retail prices remain on the level of USD $ 1.97-2.17/kg for the quality tomato in the mentioned period this year.
The market operators explain this fact by fewer tomato volumes supplied on market by the Ukrainian producers. So, the prices established by the importers influence much the price level, to the opinion of Dmitriy Chernyak, the Market information Specialist of Odesa office, Agricultural Marketing Project. As the specialist says, the local producers keep the price high too, cause the quality of local tomato is not worse and sometimes even better the quality of the imported tomato sold in Odesa by the small wholesale sets on USD $ 1.87/kg.
Tetyana Getman, the Specialist on Fruit and Vegetable Market, Inforamtional Agency APK-Inform, thinks differently. Turkish tomatoes form the majority of import, says Tetyana, but they are more expensive than Ukrainian and characterized by the significantly shorter shelf life period. The second factor is especially important for the wholesale trade, so the wholesalers purchase Turkish tomatoes unwillingly and in small volumes. That's why, to T. Getman's opinion, import do not have the decisive influence on tomato price in this period of time.
Maxim Yenchenko, the AMP Market Information Specialist, agreed to the both opinions, and mentioned that in the whole the tomato import volumes in Ukraine are not so large to determine the price. At the same time, the major part of this import is passing through Odesa oblast, and there the price factor established by the importers is more essential.