April 3 2006, 09:59

The peak supply of Polish apples took place at start of preferential import taxes' termination

Since the 1st of April the reduced seasonal taxes have been terminated for table apple import to Ukraine, "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" weekly journal informs. Starting from this day, apple import tax gets back to the level of EUR0.5/kg; in many cases the import becomes unprofitable. A greater part of quality table apple is normally imported to Ukrainian market, and Poland is the main supplier. The importers did their best to transport large apple volumes to the country before the increase of import tax. That's why apple supply has rapidly increased on the wholesale markets. There is an unusually large quantity of trucks with Polish apples on Kyiv market.

"We can't say that the seasonal increase of import tax will result in the immediate apple price growth", Maxim Yenchenko says, the Market Information Specialist of the Agricultural Marketing Project. "The wholesalers have to sell apples brought to Ukraine; if they are not able to use specialized storages, a certain price drop is possible by mid April. At the same time, apple prices in May will be probably higher than nowadays."