More than 95% of Ukraine's fruit and berry exports fall under three categories: nuts, frozen berries and apples, according to the Director for Development of the Ukrainian Fruit and Vegetable Association (UPOA), Kateryna Zvereva.
She said that in the first 6 months of 2020, exports of these products fell by 14% in terms of volume, from 31.2 thousand tons to 26.8 thousand tons. At the same time, in value terms, the figure not only did not decrease, but actually increased by 2.4%, from $ 61.8 million to $ 63.3 million. Compared to last year, the most significant stagnation was shown by apples. In the first semester of 2020, 1.5 thousand tons of apples worth $ 1.1 million were exported to the EU. For comparison, from January to June 2019, 3.8 thousand tons of apples worth $ 2.4 million were delivered to the EU.
"The main reason for this decline is the low apple harvest in 2019. The domestic prices for this popular fruit were quite high throughout the season, as a result of which many producers prioritized selling apples in the domestic market. The decline in the apple harvest in 2019 and the high share of low-quality apples have also made it difficult to export. Accordingly, even those who originally planned to sell for export were forced to reduce their shipments due to the lack of supply," said Kateryna Zvereva.
However, this year's forecasts point to an increase in the production of apples this year, and exports will likely also grow," added Kateryna Zvereva.
The demand of European importers for nuts and frozen berries has remained high. The revenue from the sales of nuts and berries has amounted to $ 34.1 and $ 28.0 million, which is 4% and 6% more than last year. The main reason for this was the collapse of the logistics chains due to the introduction of quarantine restrictions, which made it more difficult to import products from Asian countries.
Source: fruit-ukraine.org