August 22 2006, 09:58

Export of Ukrainian water-melons beats all records in 2006

According to information of the Agricultural Marketing Project, the price for water-melon has insignificantly increased since recent week; the producers raised the sales price in main production regions. At the same time, increased supplies of water-melon to large cities resulted in a certain decrease of retail price for water-melon. Thus the margins reduced for the wholesalers; the export of water-melons became even more perspective business.

At the present moment water-melon costs $0.02-0.03/kg on terms of customer's pick up in Kherson oblast. One week ago the price declined down to $0.01-0.02/kg level which made harvesting of water-melons unfeasible. At the same time, the wholesale price for water-melon was $ 0.09-0.11/kg on FARMER market in Kyiv, and $0.15-0.23/kg in retail sale. At the same period of time the wholesale price for water-melon was $ 0.39-0.58/kg on BRONISHE market, the largest market in Poland, near Warsaw. The wholesale purchase price approximately corresponded to the price level observed in other EU countries.

Taking into account the price difference, Ukrainian water-melon remains price-competitive in the EU countries despite of constant growth of transportation expenses. According to the forecasts of the Agricultural Marketing Project, water-melon export will be top record in 2006 (it can exceed 25,000 tons). The preliminary evaluations indicate that the sales profit can be more than $ 3 mln. We'll remind that the previous record of water-melon export happened in 2004 when more than 11,200 tons of commodities worth more than $ 1 mln. were exported. It is also expected that melon export will grow this year as well - it was minimal during previous years.

You can get more details about the perspectives of Ukraine on world cucurbits market, and also about fruit and vegetable production and price forecast during the third international conference-exhibition "Fruits and Vegetables of Ukraine 2006. Open market". The event will be held December 5th -6th 2006 in Kyiv, on the territory of the National Complex "Expocenter of Ukraine".