August is the month for the lowest fruit and vegetable prices. The price of melons and watermelons is already significantly falling every week. Soon, so will the price of domestic apples and pears. However, the changeable weather is not allowing fruit and vegetables to become as cheap as customers would like.
On average the price of vegetables is decreasing at a rate of 5-7% a week. And this tendency is set to continue to the end of August. However, for the majority of vegetables, the season is a week ahead in comparison with last year and this was caused by the cold weather in spring.
“The hot weather began in early July but was then replaced by a cold snap, which led to a decrease in product offerings and slowed down the tempo of the seasonal drop in prices on the market. However, prices continued to fall by inertia,” says Tatiana Getman, Head of ‘APK-Inform: Vegetables and Fruits’, “As a result, greenhouse and seasonal fruit and Borsht vegetables showed negative price movements in the preceding week."
Seasonal fruits and berries held the largest share in Ukraine's so called 'fruit basket' for the previous week, thanks to their abundance. They fell by only 2% for the week, and divergent price trends were noted in the fruit basket. For the Borscht set of vegetables (beetroot, carrot, potato, onion), beetroot became 7.2 % cheaper, while the seasonal greenhouse vegetables were reduced by 8.3 %.
Experts suggest that if producers tried to raise the prices of some food products, it would lead to a drop in demand.
“The main driver of price changes during the summer will be the agricultural sector, as well as the consumption of the product stored in warehouses before the new harvest,” considers Andrey Shevchishin, an analyst from the company FOREX CLUB in Ukraine. According to him, the lack of the indexation of social benefits and salaries, including those in the public sector, also limits demand.
“Another important factor is the difficult situation on the labor market, which hinders effective demand. Against this background, sellers are forced to curb prices to support sales,” says Andrey Shevchishin.
Source: kp.ua
