This week, the trend of decreasing prices for greenhouse tomatoes in Ukraine has strengthened, according to analysts of the EastFruit project. In many regions, weather conditions have stabilized, allowing farmers to resume the harvest of field-grown tomatoes. Currently, harvesting is taking place in almost all regions of the country. However, according to farmers, demand for these products remains low due to their unsatisfactory quality.
As of today, prices for quality tomatoes have fallen to 20-40 UAH/kg ($0.49-0.97/kg), which is on average 22% cheaper than at the end of the last work week. Both producers and wholesale companies attribute the challenges in sales to the low quality of the tomatoes. The plants are severely affected by hot and dry weather, with fruits suffering from sunburns and often developing cracks, which diminishes their market appeal.
Despite the gradual decrease in prices for greenhouse tomatoes, this product is currently being offered on the domestic market at prices that are on average 25% higher than a year ago. Ukrainian producers explain this by the overall reduction in tomato production in the country.
Source: east-fruit.com