Ukraine: fresh produce price index down for third week in a row

“Last week prices went down due to a seasonal factor. Nevertheless, prices are decreasing slower than a year before with the price levels of almost all fresh produce categories (except greenhouse vegetables) remaining higher”, says Ms. Tetiana Getman, Head of Fruit-Inform. “The situation is connected with the devaluation of the Ukrainian hryvnia that makes imported produce more expensive”.

At the same time, the supply of domestic early produce kept on growing in the market and influenced pricing. Greenhouse vegetables are averagely 25% less expensive year-on-year as their exports to Russia are limited, and the demand for them in the internal market remained moderate. Under conditions of increasing costs of growing greenhouse vegetables, the situation poses serious risk to the Ukrainian greenhouse sector.

Higher supply of early produce also led to a decrease of 4.7% in prices of traditional vegetables. Potatoes became 2% less expensive.

Meanwhile, fruit prices grew by 1% over a week thanks to an increase in lemon prices that was not compensated even by lower prices of bananas. However, the market experts expect a decrease of fruit prices next week thanks to growing supply of early berries.