October 9 2006, 15:16

The producers of late cabbage varieties expect the prices to be favorable this year too

This year is unlike two previous years - 2004 and 2005 - for white cabbage producers. The growers of early and medium cabbage have not achieved the results they hoped for. The production of these varieties increased the most in 2006 comparing to the previous years; and the prices were lower than earlier. In particular, the producers set the wholesale price for cabbage in average $0.32/kg in summer 2005. In summer 2006 the average wholesale price for cabbage was only $0.13/kg (the price decreased down to $0.06-0.07/kg in some oblasts).

The price situation has not changed much by the beginning of autumn: the producers set the average wholesale prices on the level of $0.11/kg, and they still experienced problems to sell cabbage. However, past year cabbage was easily sold for 0.23/kg in average.

Nevertheless, the prices for cabbage gradually increased in September (by the end of September the average prices were on the level of $0.15/kg). The gap between past year and this year prices was reducing as well: the twofold price difference in the beginning of month declined down to 9% difference in the end of September. Considering the updated production and price forecast prepared by the Agricultural Marketing Project (AMP), we see that cabbage production is likely to increase only 11% comparing to the previous year. So, most growers of late cabbage varieties expect the cabbage prices to be nearly the same as they were a year ago.

According to the results of AMP evaluations, this price level significantly exceeds the cabbage production cost. The results of the marketing season 2004/05 in the AMP target oblasts showed that cabbage production cost was $0.02-0.03/kg in Lviv, Cherkasy and Poltava oblasts and $0.05-0.08/kg in Zakarpattya, Odesa oblasts and AR Crimea (mostly medium cabbage varieties were produced there).