July 7 2006, 10:54

OLVITA company reports about sour cherry deficit on market

Processing enterprises have been constantly experiencing a significant deficit for sour cherry in recent years. According to information of Dmitriy Chernyak, the Market Information Specialist of Odesa office, Agricultural Marketing Project, informs about even more severe deficit for sour cherry observed this year.

Vitaliy Deniskin, the regional manager of OLVITA company thinks, the most serious problem now is to purchase the planned volumes of sour cherry. The company is ready to purchase sour cherry throughout Ukraine for a good price. The price $ 1/kg and more can be paid for large sour cherry 18 mm and more in diameter. The only condition is that fruits should be with tops; it is the only way for sour cherry to stand transportation. This year sour cherry harvest was not more than 25% of average annual index. To Mr. Deniskin's opinion, this is the reason for problems experienced by many processors.

According to the data of price monitoring conducted by the Agricultural Marketing Project (AMP), sour cherry entered markets of the southern oblasts of Ukraine in average one week later than usual. The price for sour cherry has been remaining on the level of $0.98/kg starting from the moment of product entrance for two weeks already on KOPANI market, Kherson oblast. It is worth mentioning that the present price is 40% higher than the first retail prices in 2005; as of today, sour cherry price exceeds three-fold the wholesale price for this product observed at the same period of time past year.

Such situation development complies with the conclusions done by the analysts of "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" journal. The conclusions were made in the "Production and price forecast for water-melon, melon, table grape, fruits and berries in Ukraine in 2006" developed late March this year. Experts tell about the decreased harvest of sour cherry; though they do not think the decrease is so dramatic. They evaluate the gross production of this fruit to decrease 17-20% comparing to the previous year. The analysts think, due to reduced production and growth of average prices we should expect for more produce sales done via fresh market. The fresh market prices will be quite high during the whole season.

AMP information. OLVITA company manages distribution and logistics of fresh, cooled and frozen produce in Ukraine; the produce is both of national and imported origin.

The company is founded by Dutch firm OLVIYA, which has been successfully working for 10 years already on European market. Due to Dutch investments, on the 11th of May 2005 OLVITA company opened a complex for processing and distribution of fresh and frozen berries, fruits and vegetables. New enterprise occupies the area of 1.4 ha including storage complex for 1,000 tons of produce, and cold chamber. There is also a unit for preliminary processing of raw materials; freezing tunnel of 4 tons/hour capacity, the handling unit and the storage for 2,000 tons of ready commodities.

OLVITA company introduces the assortment of more than 50 items including frozen wild and cultural berries, fruits, vegetables, vegetable mixes, and fresh vegetables, herbs, species, salads.