According to EastFruit, due to massive crop losses of stone fruits in Serbia—home to significant fruit freezing capacities—local processors are actively seeking alternative sources of raw materials.
In particular, according to local industry players, a delegation of Serbian companies arrived in Uzbekistan’s capital, Tashkent, on May 19, 2025. These Serbian entrepreneurs are interested in importing Uzbek sour cherries and apricots. During their visit, they plan to meet with major exporters and processors in Uzbekistan to secure contracts for the supply of already frozen stone fruits, as delivering fresh fruit of suitable quality for freezing to Serbia would be logistically difficult.
It is worth recalling that the apricot crop losses in 2025 were unprecedented. Turkey, the largest apricot processor and one of the top exporters of fresh apricots, was left with virtually no harvest. Major losses were also reported in Moldova, Ukraine, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, and other countries in the region. More on this was covered in our article “The Apricot Apocalypse.” The situation with sour cherries, sweet cherries, and other stone fruits such as plums is slightly better but still extremely challenging. All of these fruits are essential to the freezing industry, where Serbia is a global leader. However, the most severe blow to Serbia’s freezing sector came from the catastrophic losses of its number one crop—raspberries.
Meanwhile, in Central Asian countries, the 2025 harvest of stone fruits is expected to be abundant. Apricot prices, in particular, are currently trending downward and are below long-term averages. This presents an excellent opportunity for Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to supply substantial volumes of stone fruits to EU and Eastern European markets, as well as to export dried fruits to Turkey.
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