As the participants of the Ukrainian fruit and vegetable market report to EastFruit experts, the Ukrainian market significantly activated after the embargo imposed by Belarus on the supply of fruit and vegetables and other food products from the EU from January 1, 2022 was introduced. A sharp increase in demand was noted in several market segments at once, with the largest one in the apple market.
“Of course, this is good news for the Ukrainian market and Ukrainian growers. After all, Poland supplied at least 120 thousand tonnes of apples annually to the Belarusian market, and even more than 500 thousand tonnes when the re-export to Russia was especially active. On the other hand, this somewhat aggravates the prospects for export diversification and may lead to a slowdown in Ukraine’s transition to more modern growing technologies and popular apple varieties. This is very bad news for the Polish market, where prices for quality Idared apples have already dropped to the price level of industrial apples,” Andriy Yarmak, economist at the Investment Centre of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), says.
Read also: Russian ban helped Ukraine increase exports of fruits, berries, and nuts
EastFruit analysts believe that given growing demand, the prices for apples, even of varieties that have little demand in recent years, such as Rennet Simirenko and Idared, may rise in Ukraine. By the way, the demand for apples from Moldova has also grown, and this is the main factor in the growth of apple prices in this market lately.
“Cooperative trading platform of the Ukrainian Horticultural Association (UHA) notes a sharp surge in demand for Ukrainian apples from supermarket chains in Belarus. To date, we have already signed contracts with five different supermarket chains that are ready to buy Ukrainian apples of different segments – from affordable to premium. Since we already have obligations to supply large volumes of apples to the EU, the Middle East, Asia and Africa, we invite Ukrainian producers to join our platform to ensure uninterrupted supplies of high-quality apples to Belarus. I also want to remind that we do not buy apples from growers to make money on them. We work on the open accounting principle, when the grower receives the export price minus the documented costs and agreed deductions to support the platform. Farmers selling apples through us receive, on average, 50-70% higher prices now than those offered by intermediaries in the Ukrainian market.” Olexandr Pakhno, representative of the UHA trading platform.
Thus, there are many good news for growers in Eastern Europe, excluding the EU countries. Andriy Yarmak earlier reported five good news, and this one can be considered the sixth, but one that is worth these five combined.
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