Ukraine sees record low prices of apples in last six years

Thursday, June 2, 2016 - 12:20 (EEST) Section: Latest news

Wholesale prices of Ukrainian apples at the end of last month stayed at their lowest levels in the last six years with the price ranging UAH 4-9 per kg (EUR 0.14-0.32 per kg), which is 66.7% cheaper than in 2015, the press service of the APK-Inform: Vegetable and Fruit project reported.
”Currently, Ukrainian apple growers have to ship apples at record low prices in the last six years. Most sales are carried out at prices ranging UAH 4-9 UAH per kg, while just a year ago the price of the products in Ukraine was three times higher on the average,” the report reads.
Experts say the current season (July 2015 – June 2016) sees excess supply of domestically grown apples on the Ukrainian food market. In 2015, Ukrainian fruit growers had the second largest apple harvest since 2010, while exports in the current season have hit their lowest levels in the history of Ukraine`s independence.
APK-Inform says that Ukrainian producers had to reduce prices even despite the fact that the current season saw the lowest apple imports in the past ten years. In particular, apple imports from July 2015 to April 2016 totaled 17,100 tonnes, which was 68.8% down on the same period of 2014-2015.
As UNIAN reported earlier, gross yield of fruits and berries in Ukraine last year grew by 7.2% compared to the previous year to 2.14 million tonnes, according to the State Statistics Service.
The Ukrainian association of gardening and small fruit growing, Ukrsadprom, appealed to the Ukrainian authorities for support of the domestic gardening, berry growing and germination sectors with a view of mitigating the consequences of trade war with Russia. The Russian market accounted for over 90% of Ukrainian fruit and berries exports before the Crimean blockade and the food embargo.
Ukraine`s Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food plans to boost exports of Ukrainian farm produce to China, as well as ensure access to the Chinese market for domestic producers of berries and fruit.