Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
The peach harvest of medium varieties in Ukraine exceeds significantly the past year harvest and the normal annual harvest too
During the past week the supply of the locally produced peach of medium varieties has grown obviously on Odesa markets. The orchardists inform about the good harvest of medium peach varieties, which exceeds the past year yield.
Peach in bulk on terms of self transportation out of the farm is sold on USD 0.5-0.8/kg, depending on the quality of the commodity. In retail a medium-sized and medium-quality peach is sold on USD 0.7-1/kg. This price is surely lower than a year ago when the spring frosts killed nearly fully the peach harvest in Crimea. Still it is quite affordable for the majority of the local producers, as the peach production cost is about USD 0.2-0.4/kg in the region, according to the assessment of the Agricultural Marketing Project (AMP).
It is worth to note that this year some peach producers in the region started to pack produce in the special corrugated board boxes with individual cells; this way they were able to decrease twice the transportation losses and have 30-40% higher price for the produce, so the expenses for packing materials were covered over and above.
Considering the rather high price level observed in Odesa oblast this year, the market players are defining the illegal import barriers from the neighboring Moldova as one of the reasons. There is information that the retail price on peach is USD 0.3-0.5/kg on markets of the bordering rayons of Moldova.
The farmers of AR Crimea are also informing about higher than usual peach harvest (for the medium varieties); they also expect more rich harvest of late peach varieties. According to the evaluations of the Project's experts, the peach yield will be 15% higher than the normal annual record and dozen times higher than a year ago. However, a low percentage of marketable peach and an unusually great supply of peach for processing needs are observed.
More than 22% of the gross peach yield of Ukraine is produced in Odesa oblast. The acreage of peach orchards has stopped to shorten recently, and even increased a little this year, according to the evaluations of the AMP analysts. AR Crimea produces about 32% of total peach yield in Ukraine.
According to the prognoses of the AMP analysts, peach production will increase 50% this year comparing to the previous year level.