Most Ukrainian producers completed the watermelon sales season this week, EastFruit project analysts report. At the same time, key market players note that this year the watermelon sales season in Ukraine ends 2 weeks later than a year ago, but Ukrainian farmers are offering the latest batches of these melons for sale noticeably cheaper than at the end of the last season.
Today, producers offer residual lots of watermelons for sale at 12-18 UAH/kg ($0.33-0.49/kg), which is, on average, 30% more expensive than at the end of the last working week.
It is worth noting that most melon producers consider the result of this season to be unsatisfactory. At the beginning of the season, the weather presented farmers with several unpleasant surprises in the form of heavy rains and hail, as a result of which a significant part of the melon seedlings were simply destroyed. At the same time, heavy precipitation and the associated high humidity led to massive damage to fields by fungal diseases.
As a result, the quality of watermelons this season was noticeably worse than last year. Thus, at the moment, prices for watermelon in Ukraine are on average 34% lower than at the end of last season. According to the farmers themselves, this is because the quality of these products this season has noticeably decreased due to unfavorable weather conditions.
For more information: east-fruit.com