Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
The price on tomatoes in Ukraine may decrease significantly in the next two weeks
According to the information provided by Valentina Kotsur, the Agronomist of Odesa office, Agricultural Marketing Project, the vegetable producers of the South of Odesa oblast started the selective harvesting of field tomatoes. Despite of a rather huge expansion of the bacterial diseases of tomatoes (bacterial gummosis, speck, spots), in the whole we can say that the phytosanitary state of the plants is better than a year ago, as tomatoes are less affected by Phytophtora blight and other fungal diseases. So, the producers of field tomatoes hope for a good harvest this year.
At the present moment the price on tomatoes of the most common varieties corresponds to the past year price level; tomato costs USD 0.5-0.7/kg in retail and USD 0.36-0.5/kg in wholesale. It is known that the price used to decrease in the beginning of tomato mass harvesting; this moment is expected to take place in the nearest 1-2 weeks.
We'll remind that, according to the tentative prognoses of the analysts of the Agricultural Marketing Project, the acreage of field tomatoes has increased 10-12% this year, and the production may grow on nearly one third comparing to the previous year level. Odesa oblast is the second leading producer of tomatoes next to Kherson oblast.