Ukraine: Export of frozen blueberries has decreased

The export of Ukrainian frozen blueberries decreased in the first 8 months of season 2011/2012 by 20%. This is the first negative trend in the in Ukrainian blueberry industry in five years, as the export of blueberries from Ukrainian has been increasing on average each season since 2007.

The competition position of Ukrainian blueberries on the EU market has significantly worsened in the current season, due to the high prices for the raw product. The harvest wasn't successful last year, which led to much higher buying prices. The purchasing centres started buying blueberries in July 2011 for prices between 1.90-2.20 Euro per kg. Near the end of the season the prices increased to 2.80-3.30 Euro per kg. This meant that the processing companies had to buy the blueberries for almost twice as much as in 2010.

As a result of this many processors completely stopped processing blueberries. They also think that it will be very hard to sell products on the EU market. At the same time Ukraine has also actively developed its production of cultivated blueberries in the past years.