Early potatoes in Uzbekistan fell in price by more than twice in two weeks

As EastFruit wrote earlier, the first large batches of early potatoes of the new crop became available on the wholesale markets of Uzbekistan’s capital in the first ten days of April, about three weeks later than last year. As of April 7, 2023, the average wholesale price for them was 1.8 times higher than on the same date last year.

However, as EastFruit analysts have already noted, prices for early potatoes tend to decline rapidly. Over the past two weeks, their average wholesale price has fallen by 2.3 times, and current wholesale prices have reached last year’s levels.

According to EastFruit price monitoring data, from 7 to 21 April 2023, the average wholesale price for early potatoes of a new crop decreased from 16 000 to 7 000 UZS/kg (from $1.41 to $0.61), which is more than 2 times in just two weeks. This indicates a sharp increase in the supply of early potatoes in the domestic Uzbek market in the reviewed period.

As can be seen from the graph above, when the first wholesale batches of early potatoes became available in the markets of Uzbekistan’s capital, their average wholesale price was 1.8 times higher than on the same date last year. However, due to such a sharp decline in prices over the past two weeks, current wholesale prices are in line with last year’s levels.

Read also: Prices for tomatoes keep declining in Uzbekistan

Meanwhile, a rapid increase in the supply of early potatoes, and a sharp drop in their prices, together with the resulting narrowing of the gap with wholesale prices for last year’s potatoes, put pressure on the prices of last year’s potatoes.

As a result, wholesale prices for last year’s potatoes also fell sharply over the past week – they decreased from 14 to 21 April from 4 000 to 3 000 UZS/kg (from $0.35 to $0.26) – by 25% in one week. As of April 21, 2023, the average wholesale price for last year’s potatoes was a quarter lower than on the same date last year.