October 6 2006, 10:07

Wholesale price for egg-plants is twice as less comparing to the previous year

According to the data of wholesale price monitoring conducted by the Agricultural Marketing Project, the wholesale price for egg-plants is twice as less comparing to the fall 2005. At the present moment egg-plants can be bought for $0.13/kg on KOPANI wholesale market (Kherson oblast); at the same period of time past year the price for this commodity was $0.25-0.29/kg.

The gap for retail prices is smaller, it is only $0.03-0.05/kg ($0.25-0.29/kg this year comparing to $0.29-0.39/kg).

To the producers' opinion, this year conditions were more favorable for egg-plant production than in the previous year. In 2005 the processing enterprises suffered from raw material shortage and offered good prices for egg-plants. However, the market of egg-plants, especially fresh commodities, is not sufficiently large. So, the producers reasonably considered a rapid extension of this crop acreage to be a risky challenge. According to the analysts' evaluations, the growth of egg-plant cultivation areas in 2007 has not exceeded 10% in the southern rayons of Ukraine. Judging from the fact that the producers inform about 15-30% higher yield comparing to the previous year, the analysts think that the growth of gross production of egg-plants will not exceed 20-25% in the southern oblasts of Ukraine.