Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
How much will Polish apples and pears cost tomorrow in Ukraine?
We have informed several times that decreased seasonal import tax on some types of produce is in action фаеук December the 1st. Market players are trying to assess now the potential influence of this fact to the inner market prices. Apple and pear market is of peculiar interest, as tax decrease on these products is the most significant.
According to the information provided by the Agricultural Marketing Project (AMP), in Poland the wholesale apple prices are fluctuating within USD 0.25-0.39/kg depending from the variety. By the way, the mentioned price refers to apples which we consider to belong to high price segment. The highest prices are recorded on Golden Delicious and Antonovka varieties, the lowest prices are recorded on Lobo, Jonica, Elstar varieties. Varieties Boiken, Cortland, Gala, Gloster, Jonagold, Jonagored, Ligol and Champion belong to medium price segment.
At the same time, Ukrainian market is really full of national apples of different varieties and quality. The most expensive top quality apples cost up to USD 1.86/kg, however, you can buy apples of good quality for USD 0.58-1.07/kg. According to the estimations of the Agricultural Marketing Project, if Polish apples are imported to Ukraine legally, after tax and VAT payments these commodities will cost USD 0.33-0.5/kg. If we take transportation expenses and vendors' profit into account, the majority of Polish apples will be able to compete with high-quality Ukrainian apples, as imported products are easily getting in price segment of USD 0.58-1.07/kg. If a widely known practice of custom value understatement is applied, quality Polish produce will be sold cheaper than Ukrainian apples.
We'd like to note that first offers of wholesale sets of Polish apples have been already placed in AMP database. Moreover, at once eight Polish companies will participate in the second international conference "Fruits and Vegetables of Ukraine 2005"; seven of them work in produce import and export business, apple and pear export in particular.
Wholesale pear prices are USD 0.52-0.68/kg in Poland. The most expensive variety is Konferencja, varieties Paten and Lukas cost less. Pear price fluctuates within USD 0.58-1.37/kg in Ukraine now. As the analysts of the Agricultural Marketing Project think, tomorrow quality Polish pear will cost 0.68-0.82/kg on Ukrainian custom. Polish pear is likely to cost USD 0.78-0.98/kg on the wholesale markets of Central Ukraine, and will certainly compete with pears of national origin.
So, next week apple prices can decrease a little on Ukrainian market, as import supply will definitely grow. Russia have not raised a ban on Polish produce supplies yet, so that Polish producers can not count on significant price growth on apples. Moreover, some analysts even forecast apple price decrease. That's why apple prices will hardly be changed much in December, even looking forward to the prognosed demand increase before the New Year holidays.