Fruit-inform.com reports that heavy snowfall in Ukraine has caused serious delays in fruit and vegetable shipments to supermarket chains and food markets throughout the country.
On Monday 18 January, the Ukrainian authorities restricted road traffic in Mykolaiv, Odessa, Kirovohrad and Dnipropetrovsk Oblasts, because of this, wholesale companies and retail chains are now unable to replenish their stocks in time, while middlemen and farmers able to ship their produce have started raising their prices.
However, the price growth is still of declarative character, as supermarket chains are not rushing to raise purchase prices.
"Now we are selling the volumes of vegetables, which were purchased last week," says a purchasing manager at one of the largest Ukrainian supermarket chains. "We still do not plan to raise purchase prices, as we are limited by the low purchasing power of our customers. However, if the heavy snow continues until the end of this week, we will most likely be forced to purchase vegetables at higher prices and correspondingly raise prices for end consumers."
Prices of traditional vegetables are at a record high now in Ukraine. Their current levels are 2-3 times as high as registered a year before and the highest in Eastern Europe.
Source: fruit-inform.com
