Wholesale prices for fresh tomatoes have fallen sharply over the past week in Uzbekistan – the average wholesale price for rose tomatoes has fallen by 32%, and red round tomato prices have fallen by a third. Given that wholesale prices for red round tomatoes have been declining for the second week, their price has fallen by almost 40% over the past two weeks, EastFruit experts note.
According to market participants, this is due to a sharp increase in the supply of fresh tomatoes from heated greenhouses and of the first wholesale batches of tomatoes from the southern regions of the country grown in film tunnels.
According to EastFruit price monitoring, from April 7 to April 14, 2023, the average wholesale price for red round tomatoes decreased from 33 000 to 22 000 UZS/kg (from $2.90 to $1.93). Considering that the prices have been falling for the second week in a row, from March 31 to April 14, 2023, the average wholesale price for red round tomatoes decreased from 36 000 to 22 000 UZS/kg (from $3.15 to $1.93), i.e. e. by 39% in the last two weeks. At the same time, current wholesale prices approached last year’s levels. The average wholesale price on April 14, 2023, was only 16% higher than on the same date last year.
The decline in prices for rose tomatoes began only this week, and it is rather sharp. From April 7 to April 14, 2023, the average wholesale price decreased from 38 000 to 26 000 UZS/kg (from $3.34 to $2.28), i.e. by 31.5% in one week. However, unlike prices for red round tomatoes, the current wholesale prices for rose tomatoes are still quite high compared to last year. As of April 14, 2023, the average wholesale price for rose tomatoes is more than 1.5 times higher than the same date last year.
According to Husan Khaydarov, commercial director of GDF Export, a major exporter of Uzbek fruits and vegetables, the reason for such a sharp decline in prices for fresh tomatoes over the past week is a significant increase in supply volumes in the domestic market. He says this is due to the growth in the volume of supply from heated greenhouses and to the supply of the first wholesale batches of tomato crops from the southern regions of the country grown in film tunnels.
“When anomalous cold weather ended, approximately in the middle of the third decade of January, the gas pressure in greenhouses began to gradually recover. Greenhouses that lost their crop during the January abnormal cold, planted seedlings of tomatoes again in late January – early February. Taking into account the growing season, the harvest of tomatoes has already begun in these greenhouses and the first wholesale batches have begun to enter the market.
At the same time, the first wholesale batches of tomatoes grown in film tunnels in the southern regions of the country also began to enter the market. For example, in the Surkhandarya region, the southernmost region of Uzbekistan, significant warming at the end of January made it possible to start planting seedlings of tomatoes grown in this way.
As a result, over the past 7-10 days, the supply of fresh tomatoes has significantly increased on the domestic market, which led to a sharp decrease in prices for them.
Moreover, under favorable weather conditions, the supply of fresh tomatoes on the domestic market will gradually further increase in the coming weeks, which will lead to a further reduction in prices. Thus, a sharp decline in prices over the past week can be considered the beginning of a downward trend in wholesale prices for fresh tomatoes, provided there are no weather anomalies in the coming weeks,” the expert explained.
We remind that in mid-March 2023, Eastfruit wrote that the main reason for the rapid growth in tomato prices in Uzbekistan in January-March 2023 is the huge crop losses in greenhouses due to abnormally cold weather in Uzbekistan in the second decade of January. Due to the shortage of gas in the country during this period, the gas pressure in many greenhouse complexes decreased significantly and this led to the loss of plants.
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