For the first time since summer 2020, Ukrainian producers have managed to get good prices for onion, EastFruit reports. Although the growth rates are still quite insignificant, the very fact that the prices have started increasing has already inspired some optimism among local farmers, who still have substantial stocks of products.
Onions were relatively cheap almost everywhere in the 2020/21 season, and the pace of sales and prices continued to disappoint producers. Moreover, the lowest price for onion in the region was recorded in Ukraine, and it almost did not change since July 2020.
At the end of the previous week, onion prices in Ukraine rarely exceeded 4.50 UAH/kg ($ 0.16/kg). Farmers are now ready to sell high-quality onions at 4.00-5.00 UAH/kg ($ 0.14-0.18/kg), and onions of bad quality are sold from 3.00 UAH/kg ($ 0.11/kg).
The producers themselves report that, despite a significant supply of onions on the market, the demand for high-quality products has slightly increased this week. Wholesale companies and supermarket chains began to actively replenish onion stocks ahead of the long May holidays, and farmers managed to push prices up. Moreover, the share of low-quality onions on the market has slightly decreased, and the number of high-quality onions has increased.
See also: Unusually high prices for greenhouse cucumbers in Ukraine and Russia. Can it get even higher?
Will onion prices continue to rise after the May holidays, or was it just a temporary increase, and the price situation will stabilize after the pre-holiday surge in demand? On the hand, due to bad weather conditions in Ukraine, the start of sales of new harvest onions, as well as of other early vegetables, will be delayed. This will help producers to sell last year’s stocks at the end of the current season. On the other hand, the stocks of onion in the storage facilities of Ukrainian producers are still quite high and close to record levels for at least the last few years. Thus, this will also affect the prices of early onions when they aarrive on the market. Farmers , despite the increase in prices, are generally unhappy with the results of the season and, according to EastFruit analysts, the preliminary forecast for the reduction of onion areas in Ukraine in 2021 is still relevant.
The use of the site materials is free if there is a direct and open for search engines hyperlink to a specific publication of the East-Fruit.com website.
