This year sour cherry processing volumes are several times lower than in 2005
Ukrainian processing enterprises have been traditionally suffering from sour cherry deficit during recent years. Season 2006 is a top record in this regard.
In the beginning of 2006 the specialists forecasted significantly lower harvest of sour cherry and high prices for this commodity because of severe winter frosts. And, hot weather in the first half of summer sufficiently reduced the harvest of marketable sour cherries. As a result, the price for cherry for processing needs was $0.23-0.49/kg in season ($0.11-0.23/kg in 2005). However, actually no one processor was able to load processing capacities with sour cherry even for such prices. According to information provided by the representatives of processing enterprises, the volumes of processed and frozen sour cherry are significantly lower, only 15-20% of the past year data on most enterprises.
AMP information. According to data of the official statistics, during five recent years sour cherry production in Ukraine has been fluctuating 110-180,000 tons/year. The largest sour cherry producers are Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk and Odesa oblasts; these regions produce more than one third of the gross sour cherry production in Ukraine.