By the weekend, carrots have every chance of becoming the most expensive item in the borscht set on the domestic market, surpassing potatoes in the rankings, according to analysts from the EastFruit project. This means that for the first time in the history of the project’s monitoring, this vegetable, during the peak of the harvest season, could become the most expensive among all the borscht set in Ukraine!
Prices for this root vegetable have been gradually increasing for the fourth consecutive week. As market participants note, this situation is quite unusual, as the bulk of late variety carrots were harvested from commercial farms throughout the country over the last month.
According to the farmers themselves, due to unfavorable weather conditions in the summer of this year, the quality and quantity of the expected harvest significantly decreased on the farms. Figures indicating vegetable yield loss of up to 50% or more from planned volumes were frequently mentioned. In planning further sales, almost all quality root vegetables from the fields are immediately sent to storage, while the free volumes of mainly medium-quality products cannot meet all the buyers’ needs.
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According to the data from the project’s weekly price monitoring, since the end of last week, carrot prices in Ukraine have risen on average by 11%, and today Ukrainian farmers are ready to ship these root vegetables at 20-28 UAH/kg ($0.48-0.68/kg). As of last week, current carrot prices in Ukraine remain the highest in at least the last 7 years of observations.
The main support for rising prices in this segment was the increased purchasing activity from both wholesale campaigns and retail chains, even despite the ongoing price increase. Meanwhile, most farms have paused sales of high-quality carrots in anticipation of further price increases and have placed the main harvest volume in storage. They offer only surpluses for sale, resulting in limited supply.
If we compare the current situation in the carrot markets among the countries in the project’s monitoring region, it is in Ukraine that this root vegetable remains the most expensive for the second consecutive week. Wholesale prices in this segment on the Polish market were almost 30% lower than in Ukraine at the end of the previous week. This fact suggests the onset of active root crop imports into Ukraine in the first half of the current season. This is more likely to happen if local producers in Ukraine continue to adhere to the policy of withholding sales of available vegetable volumes.
It is worth noting that, at present, carrot prices in Ukraine are on average 3.7 times higher than at the beginning of November last year. Key market players explain such a significant price difference by a decrease in the yield of this root crop due to unfavorable weather conditions.
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