April 25 2006, 18:46

Increased early cabbage supply led to price decline in Odesa oblast

According to the information provided to "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" journal by Dmitriy Chernyak, the Market Information Specialist of Odesa office, Agricultural Marketing Project, first large shipments of locally produced early cabbage entered Odesa market on the 23rd of April. The cabbage is grown by small farmers in the forcing frames in the southern rayons of Odesa oblast.

Only imported early cabbage has been constantly supplied on market before; local produce used to hit the market from time to time. Dmitriy Chernyak explains the reason of the unstable supplies by the fact that first shipments of the locally produced early cabbage have almost fully gone to Kyiv market. Large shipments of local produce for wholesale price $2.35/kg pressed the retail prices significantly down. Past week early cabbage was sold for $3.33-3.9/kg in retail, today this price has decreased down to $2.9-3.1/kg.

Cabbage ripening process was delayed by cool spring weather and minor sunny days, so major producers entered the market 2-3 weeks later. Early cabbage price is higher now than in the same period of time in 2005 (the retail price was $1.96-2.35/kg past year). Despite of this fact, the period of maximum prices has been reduced, so the producers' profits are likely to decline significantly this year.

Judging from the experience, early cabbage price tends to dynamically decrease starting from the first large shipments; this trend is observed even in the May holidays' period. We suppose that early cabbage prices may continue declining this week.