April 5 2007, 12:15

Plenty of early vegetables restrain the price growth for mushrooms

The mushroom resellers point out the increased sales volumes before the holidays. Nevertheless, they say that the attempts to increase prices result in the trade slow-down. The resellers mention the excessive supply of early vegetables on market to be the main factor that keeps the mushroom prices from growing. Only champignon producers are able to insignificantly increase prices thanks to the reduced import of this product from Poland. At the same time, the price for oyster mushroom is steady. Some resellers worry about the possible price collapse to occur next week; in this regard they initiate a flexible discount system for the large buyers.

We should mention that the production of cultivated mushrooms grows 15-30% annually in Ukraine, according to the specialists' opinion. The demand for cultivated mushrooms grows at the approximately the same rate as the mushroom supply; this product is becoming common for Ukrainians. So, mushroom growers have some great opportunities to dynamically develop: if the volumes of mushroom consumption in Ukraine climb to the average European benchmarks, the national producers should grow 3-4 times as much mushrooms. At the same time, Ukrainian producers should win the competition with the neighbors, primarily Poland. This one and a number of other urgent problems of the mushroom business will be discussed during the conference "Mushroom Industry-2007", to be held in the framework of the exhibition ""Agro-2007" in Kyiv.