According to EastFruit, a very resonant event took place on the Ukrainian market this week: for the first time, Ukraine started importing fresh cucumbers from a country that used to be the main sales market for Ukrainian greenhouse cucumbers – Russia.
According to trade sources, Russian cucumbers prove to be competitive in price with Ukrainian ones, despite the 10% import duty that importers have to pay. Ukraine withdrew from the free trade agreement with the Russian Federation.
“The supply of Ukrainian cucumber on the market is very limited now – only a few greenhouses are shipping, so prices for Ukrainian cucumber are relatively high – 38-45 UAH/kg ($1.44-1.70 per kg). Accordingly, the imports of cucumbers from Turkey have sharply increased, and they are on average 5-10 UAH/kg ($0.19-0.38) cheaper. There are also cucumbers from Belarus on sale that cost a little more than Turkish ones. Russian cucumbers are available on the market at the lowest prices among all competitors because of the current downward trend in cucumber prices in Russia,” says Ievgen Kuzin, head of international projects at Fruit-Inform.com.
“Smooth cucumbers in Russia can be bought even at 60-80 RUB/kg ($0.82-1.09 per kg) now, and short lumpy ones at 90-120 RUB/kg ($1.23-1.64 per kg). Therefore, the import of cucumbers from Russia is currently economically profitable for the fruit and vegetable trade,” the expert explains.
Read the complete article at www.east-fruit.com.