Ukraine: rapid rise in prices for bananas

According to price monitoring data, implemented by the specialists of APK-Inform, wholesale prices for bananas in Ukraine exceed the indices of the last year. It should be noted that high prices for bananas due to natural cataclysms in Ecuador were one of the main features of the last season. 97 % of banana imports to Ukraine fell to the share of this country.

 

As of December 2007, wholesale prices for bananas were declared within a range of 0.43-0.49 euro/kg and the highest possible prices were recorded in March 2008 - 0.91 euro/kg.

 

This year, banana producers reported about high crop of fruits, however, prices for bananas on Ukrainian market have already reached the level of 0.72-0.86 euro/kg due to devaluation of Ukrainian currency.

 

The other problem factor is sharp decrease of demand for bananas in Ukraine as a result of price increasing. Besides, many importers reported that they had to suffer damage due to exchange course increase of foreign currency. Currency risks and demand decrease force traders to reduce imports - according to statistics data, as of October of the current year, banana shipments to Ukraine decreased by 14 %, compared to the same period of the last year.