August 31 2006, 11:02

The prices for vegetables and cucurbits crops go on decreasing in Kyiv

According to results of wholesale price monitoring for vegetables, fruits and berries, conducted by the specialists of the Agricultural Marketing Project on main wholesale markets of Ukraine, the trend of price decrease for major vegetables is preserved this week.

During 7 recent days the prices for salad tomatoes, melon and egg-plant have decreased the most dramatically - 15% to 25%. Cucumbers and white cabbage have reduced in price in average 15%; these vegetables remain the most available on market. The price for cauliflower declined in average 18% past week.

At the same period of time an average wholesale price for peaches has increased 10%. The prices for many other commodities continued decreasing. In particular, the price for plum went down 27% during one week; grape cheapened 5-7%.

We have already mentioned that low vegetable prices this season forced farmers leave a part of harvest on field. Many farmers even decided to give up growing vegetable crops next year. It is worth mentioning that such decisions were made by overall majority of farmers who did not take advantage of market information, had no settled sales channels, or just did not have enough experience to effectively grow vegetables. At the same time the experienced farmers only mentioned the declined cost efficiency of vegetable production, as a rule.

The performance of the produce business in Ukraine will be summarized, and the perspectives of business development for 2007, as well as long-term perspective, will be presented during the specialized international conference-exhibition "Fruits and Vegetables of Ukraine 2006. Open market". This largest for Eastern Europe event will be held December 5th-6th 2006 in Kyiv in the National Complex "Expocenter of Ukraine". It is worth mentioning that the second day of the conference will be dedicated to the modern technologies of produce growing, storage, handling, packing and marketing. The participants of the event will have an opportunity to get exclusive information needed for reduction of production cost and for higher sales price for vegetables, fruits and berries.