May 23 2006, 15:19

First strawberry hits Crimean markets

Harvesting of field strawberry starts in Crimea. During the first week the price is about $ 3.5-4.9/kg. Strawberry is supplied both by private producers and the largest strawberry producers in Crimea - "Druzhba Narodov - Fruits" enterprise. Their produce is of better quality, it is packed into plastic boxes then stacked into branded cardboard boxes.

Warm weather is observed in the second half of May, it favors the terms of berry ripening. We can talk about one week delay of ripening comparing to the pervious year, according to Alexander Lekhno, the market Information Specialist of Crimean office, Agricultural Marketing Project.

We should point out that nowadays strawberry prices are twice as high comparing to the prices recorded at this time a year ago. The same prices were observed a week earlier in 2005.

First cherry harvest is expected to enter the market in a week. As for today, there are no, even single, shipments of this fruit on market.