The apples of the new crop are already on sale. Ukrainian farmers hope that in the new season fruit prices will be higher, and the business relations with external customers that have been developed over the past three years will help set another export record, Info-Shuvar analysts said.

During the 2018-2019 season Ukraine managed to maintain a positive trade balance for apples, increasing exports to a record high of 62 thousand tons. A year earlier, exports were at least half as much.

At the same time, the State Statistics Service recorded an almost 3-fold increase in apple imports: from July 2018 to June 2019, 19.5 thousand tons of these fruits were imported to Ukraine.

Seasonality of import and export was significantly different from the past MY. In the season 2018-2019. over 80% of the total volume of imports came in May and June. Whereas in MG 2017-2018. apple imports began to grow slowly since mid-winter.

“By April 2019, the supply of Ukrainian apples was excessive, and prices were low, imports were also meager. But the potential for storing apples from the 2018 harvest was low due to accelerated ripening at high temperatures in early summer.

Therefore, already in April, we felt the first signs of a shortage of a quality apple and started importing it from neighboring Poland, ”said Tatyana Getman, head of the Analytics department of the Shuvar Orspin Market.