February 15 2006, 17:55

Ukrainian wholesalers look for an alternative to Polish apples

According to the information provided by the monitoring service of "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" journal, Ukrainian companies started to look for alternative suppliers of marketable apples on the country market, as apple prices grew much in Poland. To the market players' opinion, there is a possibility to buy apples on lower prices (on $0.05-0.07/kg lower) in the other countries of Eastern Europe.

At the same time, according to the non-official information got on the custom, Polish apple export continues growing. Through one custom station up to 100-200 tons of marketable apples a day are cleared for sale on Ukrainian market; only 30% of this volume is supplied by Ukrainian companies. Nevertheless, the experts of "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" journal have doubts that all these apples will be consumed in Ukraine. Part of this produce is likely to be further re-exported.

There is no apple deficit now on Ukrainian market, both of the national and imported products. Moderate apple prices stimulate the demand, especially on the background of the increasing banana prices.