Prices rising as apple stocks in Ukraine are nearly depleted

Since the beginning of this week, Ukrainian producers have been receiving more and more messages about completing sales of residual batches of Gala apples. According to the regular monitoring data from the APK-Inform: Vegetables and Fruits project, producers not only had problems with completing batches for export but also had difficulties with sending products to the domestic market despite lower quality requirements from local buyers.

“Even despite the fact production growth for the main Ukrainian fruit in 2020 was confirmed, running parallel was also an increase in the share of low-quality products, which is difficult to sell even on the domestic market not to mention for exports. As a result, since the beginning of 2021, high-quality apples on the Ukrainian market have begun to increase in price and the range of the main varieties offered will be reduced by at least one position in the near future,” says Alexander Khorev, the head of APK-Inform: Vegetables and Fruits project.

Read also: Ukrainian potato producer expands area and storage capacity for potatoes

As of mid-January 2021, the sale of apples from storage facilities have already been completed and almost all volumes of medium- and low-quality products in the country have been exhausted. As a result, the price range for an apple in Ukraine narrowed somewhat to 8-17 UAH/kg and the average price increased by 1 UAH/kg to 13 UAH/kg in relation to the last days of December of the past 2020.

Thus, according to the APK-Inform: Vegetables and Fruits project, the Ukrainian market meets all the prerequisites for a further rise in prices for apples from the 2020 harvest and this fruit is likely to continue to rise in price in the country. However, at the moment it is still quite difficult to predict to what level the price growth will continue since they will be influenced by changes in apple stocks in neighbouring Poland and Moldova in the spring months of 2021.