May 14 2007, 10:01

Fruit harvest may dramatically decrease in Europe in 2007

The specialists of the CIS produce business periodical, ""Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" journal ", evaluate that a noticeable decline of fruit harvest in the EU countries is expected in line with the price growth for these products.

Andriy Yarmak, the Manager of "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" project, says that late April - early May frosts injured the blooming fruit trees in many orchards of many EU countries. Such large fruit producers as Poland and Hungary have already informed about more than a half fruits lost. The market players from Romania, Slovakia and Czech Republic inform about the significant losses caused by the frosts. Being a large supplier of fresh fruits in the region, Moldova also expects the production decrease for grape, peach, apricot, sweet cherry, apples and other fruits.

To the expert's opinion, this situation will result in the rapid price growth for fruits in Europe: the countries of the Southern hemisphere will get some good opportunities to supply fruits to the markets of European countries. So Ukrainian and Russian fruit producers can count on relatively high prices for fruits this year due to their orchards, which were less frost-injured.