December 20 2006, 17:28

Ukrainian borsch is poorly sold

According to information provided by the analysts of "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" journal, Ukrainian producers of "borsch" vegetables complain for low level of sales despite of the coming holidays. The most difficult situation is observed in sales of wholesale shipments of carrot and onion. The harvest of these crops was very high in Ukraine this season.

Farmers have to pay the most part of loans back in December. The need for money makes producers decrease average prices in the attempt to stimulate sales. Those agricultural producers have been the most "compliant" as for the prices in recent two weeks who do not own specialized vegetable storages. The price decrease for medium-quality vegetables was the most remarkable, as the further storage of these product had no sense, to the opinion of the product owners.

However, the situation is beneficial for those producers who have contracts on vegetable supply to supermarkets. However, they had to regularly supply relatively small shipments. The information about continuous export shipments of onion regularly came out on market. According to information of the wholesale companies, Ukrainian suppliers learned how to calibrate and pack onion according to requirements of the European Union. That's why Ukrainian onion was shipped not only to Poland but also the Western European countries.

Most producers and wholesale companies hope for more active trade of produce by late January - early February 2007. However, the producers should not expect the prices for "borsch" vegetables to rapidly grow, cause the record volumes of vegetables in storages (especially onion and carrot) should be taken into account. Also, to the opinion of Andriy Yarmak, the Deputy Director of the Agricultural Marketing Project, it is possible that the prices for some stored vegetables will collapse late spring - early summer 2007.