KYIV. July 8 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Shuvar agricultural products market LLC (Lviv) early July sent first batches of Ukrainian currant to Poland.
“We were preparing for this event conscientiously: we looked for reliable suppliers of high quality products in Ukraine and potential buyers in Poland. The first batch of currant we exported this week was only several hundreds of kilograms, but this experiment was a success,” Shuvar Director Ihor Plotitsa said.
He said that demand on high-quality Ukrainian currant in Poland and the Baltic states is stable now, and at the end of this week the market intends to delivery several tonnes of currant to the EU market.
Shuvar asks Ukrainian producers who can provide for stable supplies of high-quality products to join the project. The market is holding talks on cooperation with new European buyers, among whom are not only wholesale sellers, but also processors.
In the previous years Ukraine almost did not export fresh berries to the EU, as there was no demand on it due to a lack of high-quality berries at competitive prices.
This year supply of currant, raspberry, hurtleberry and blueberry in Ukraine would grow thanks to an increase in domestic production. The prices of berries could be slightly lower than last year prices.
“In the previous season sweet cherry held the first position in volumes of exports in Ukraine and strawberry was second. We almost did not export other berries. However, the volumes of sweet cherry and strawberry were small and almost all berries were sent to Russia,” the expert of the fruit and vegetable market of Eastern Europe Tetiana Hetman said.
She said that this year due to Russia’s embargo and the absence of re-exports through Crimea, the EU market is the most promising alternative for exports supplies.
