"This year has been very difficult for citrus in Russia. There was a large shortage of lemons last year which meant that producers and Russian importers alike, earned good money. I think that many were hoping to repeat the situation this when buying and now we have around 60% more volume compared to last year, which has brought really low prices. There is just way too much supply to meet demand." shared Andrey Volkov from Tropic International.
Prices continue to drop, last week lemons were selling between 110-120 rubles per kilo and the prices this week are ranging between 70-80 rubles, which is below cost price.
To make matters worse, Andrey said that they have been faced with some severe quality issues with the lemons coming out of Argentina.
"The lemons coming from our South African suppliers are fine. We have a good relationship with them and they send exactly the quality we request. Unfortunately it hasn't been the same for our Argentinian exporters, with the exception of a few, so we will be making some decisions soon on whether or not to continue doing business with certain suppliers. Around 60-80% of the lemons we received from Argentina were low quality with skin defects and we have had to separate them ourselves piece by piece." lamented Andrey.
"The lemons we were sent should have been allocated for processing. The major retailers have their own distribution centres and every year the requirements are getting stricter and stricter on what they will accept for fresh fruit and vegetables, making it impossible to sell category 2 at any price. I think that it shouldn't be overlooked that we have 140 million people living in Russia, making us a huge market which shouldn't be underestimated."
For more information:
Andrey Volkov
Deputy general director on business development
Tropic International
Tel: +34 605 757 727
volkov.a@tropic-group.ru
www.tropic-group.ru