In Poland, Chinese cabbage continues to rise in price rapidly, analysts of the EastFruit project report. The main factor for the new rise in prices in this segment was the limited supply of Chinese cabbage on the market. Chinese cabbage was affected by fungal diseases due to unfavorable weather conditions during the ripening period, and the plantations were also significantly affected by hail.

At the moment, wholesale prices for Chinese cabbage on the Polish market are $ 0.46-0.62/kg, which is on average 20% more expensive than at the end of the last working week.

Another factor in the growth of prices was the beginning of the off-season period: medium varieties of Chinese cabbage are gradually leaving the market, and harvesting of late ones is planned to start in early September. However, according to the growers, it is not worth hoping for a decrease in prices at the beginning of autumn. A slight decline is possible only at the beginning of the harvesting, after which the price will only rise. Today market participants are already concerned about the prospects of the Chinese cabbage harvest. Due to unfavorable weather conditions in the current season, its gross yield will be much lower than last year.

It should be noted that Chinese cabbage in Poland is already on average 33% more expensive today than in the same period last year. At the same time, most growers are planning to increase prices again next week.

Сообщение Chinese cabbage prices continue to rise in Poland появились сначала на EastFruit.

According to EastFruit, the high yield of strawberries , expected by the analysts in Ukraine in 2021, may again be below preliminary forecasts. The main reason is prolonged number of days with rains in almost the entire territory of Ukraine Moreover, the weather forecast for the coming days does not look good.

Excessive moisture leads to numerous diseases of strawberry crops. At the same time, it also impacts the crop protection and the treatments which become less effective.

Farmers in many regions of Ukraine are in distress. For some, matured strawberries literally stand in the water, and they cannot be collected. In the cases where the harvest is possible the quality and shelf-life parameters tend to be very low and the strawberries are not arriving to the fresh market but are sold for processing at a much lower.

Note also that cloudy weather further delays the ripening of strawberries and negatively affects its taste and BRIX level. The beginning of the season this year was already delayed by an average of 10 days. At the same time, prices for strawberries are already lower than a year earlier . However, the situation may well change.

At the moment, the mass ripening of berries in the open field has begun only in the southern regions of Ukraine, and the main offer comes from the Kherson region. There, weekend prices for small wholesale batches of a low-quality strawberries dropped to UAH 30 / kg ($ 1.1 per kg), and for high-quality are around UAH 50 / kg ($ 1.8). However, the weather is still rainy in the region. In addition, a significant drop in air temperature is predicted, which may stabilize and possibly even increase prices for  strawberries.

Read also: Strawberries in Ukraine and Russia are cheaper than last year

The harvest of strawberries in the central and northern regions of Ukraine is still under question mark. In these regions the area cultivated with strawberries increased in the recent years. the weather forecast scares producers who already have problems with strawberry diseases. In the coming days, a colder wave and an increase in precipitation in these regions are expected, which may nullify all their efforts by damaging the entire crop in terms of quality and quantity.

By the way, the negative impact of weather conditions on the yield and quality of strawberries is now forcing Polish gardeners to produce strawberries in film tunnels. Perhaps this could be a good strategy for Ukrainian producers as well.

Rainy weather will negatively affect not only strawberries, but also other berry crops. Already, the prospects for the yield of blueberries and honeysuckle in Ukraine in 2021 cause some concern.

Сообщение Will the strawberry price in Ukraine rise again due to rainy weather? появились сначала на EastFruit.

This week EastFruit published an analytical article explaining the sharp rise in prices for bananas in the world, including in the countries of Eastern Europe. However, more disturbing news for the banana business followed and they are associated with information about the appearance of the soil fungus Fusarium TR 4 in Venezuela. Although there is no official confirmation from the Venezuelan authorities, the photos and videos circulated in social networks and in the media leave little to no doubt to what is the cause of the deplorable situation on the banana plantations. Today, the Americanfruit publication also wrote about this issue, which, referring to the opinion of experts, comes to the same conclusions – Fusarium TR 4.

Thus, the largest exporter of bananas in the world, which is Ecuador, was completely surrounded by countries where cases of infections with the TR 4 soil fungus have already been confirmed. Cases of TR 4 banana plantations have been confirmed in Colombia and, more recently, even in Peru.

Ecuador annually exports over 6.5 million tons of bananas. Moreover, it is this country that is the largest supplier of bananas to Eastern Europe and Central Asia. So far, Ecuador has not reported cases of infection with the Fusarium  TR 4, but the likelihood of such a development is currently considered very high.

“The spread of the soil fungus Fusarium oxysporum TR 4 may lead to the urgent need to introduce genetically modified (GM) bananas, otherwise a significant part of the world’s population will be left without food. And the development of GM technology also takes time, albeit faster than traditional breeding methods. Besides, traditional breeding is not applicable to bananas, these are triploid plants that do not form seeds,” comments Marite Gailite from Latvian vegetable growers association Latvijas dārznieks.

According to EastFruit estimates, most of the countries in our region, with the exception of Russia, fall into the category of countries with low or very-low consumption of bananas. However, even here, banana is usually the best-selling fruit in supermarkets and the most imported one. On the other hand, Russia recently fell into the category of countries with an average consumption of bananas. Here, bananas are consumed almost as much as apples. Accordingly, price changes in the banana market will have a direct impact on consumers and it will also stimulate growth in demand for apples and other traditional and especially seasonal fruits and berries.

Сообщение More bad news for the banana industry – TR 4 is spreading fast появились сначала на EastFruit.

The global market for bananas, one of the most popular fruit on the planet, has experienced a number of shocks:  information is spreading in many countries’ media about imminent complete disappearance of bananas, and their prices are high everywhere, according to EastFruit.

According to EastFruit price monitoring data, bananas are now much more expensive than last year, and this is relevant for all countries of the project.

The average price of bananas jumped the most in Russia – one and a half times, and now they are sold on the Russian wholesale market at $ 1.44/kg average. At the same time, only in the Central Asia, where prices are traditionally high due to its logistical remoteness, bananas are more expensive than in the Russian Federation. Bananas are now offered on average at $ 1.57/kg and $ 1.99/kg in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, respectively.

Meanwhile, bananas in Belarus are in average 25% more expensive than a year earlier (on average $ 1.31/kg), and in Poland and Georgia, prices for bananas increased by an average of 21%. Prices have increased the least in Moldova, Ukraine and Tajikistan – only by 9% in the Moldovan market and by 6% each in Ukraine and Tajikistan.

What is driving banana prices up in the whole region of Eastern Europe and Central Asia? EastFruit suggests analyzing the situation in Ecuador, a key supplier of bananas both in the global market as a whole, and in almost every market of the countries monitored.

There were severe social protests in Ecuador in the fall of 2019, that the government even had to move the capital to another city, and the country was simply paralyzed. A few months later, the COVID-19 pandemic begun and literally devastated the country, putting it on the brink of a humanitarian disaster. As a result, according to the local Central Bank, cited by the BBC, the country’s economy fell by 8% in 2020.

The country’s plummeting economy, the rapid spread of COVID-19, as well as a sharp decline in spot prices for bananas due to weakening global demand in 2020, have not helped the banana industry in Ecuador. In addition, the quality and export of Ecuadorian bananas were hit hard by the eruption of the Sangay volcano in September, which repeated in March 2021. As a result, after the record export of bananas in 2020, the exports from Ecuador fell again in the first months of 2021.

Meanwhile, demand for bananas from Ecuador has unexpectedly increased in the US market, a less traditional destination for them. After floods swept across Central America in November 2020, banana production was hit hard in Guatemala, Honduras and other countries in the region that focused primarily on supplies to the United States. Thus, the majority of Ecuadorian exporters reoriented to the American market, and banana exports to the Russian Federation fell in the first quarter of 2021, while the United States purchased more bananas from Ecuador.

The Ecuadorian exporters also note a slight decrease in demand for bananas from Russia . The Russian Federation, against the backdrop of COVID-19 crisis, significantly reduced both the supply of natural gas and oil  in 2020. Therefore, when imported fruits had risen in price, the demand for them decreased on the Russian market. In addition, the Russian ruble has somewhat depreciated over the year, and imported products have become more expensive on the domestic market. Similar currency trends were observed over the year in the markets of other EastFruit countries, except for Moldova and Poland, where national currencies slightly strengthened.

All these trends contribute to a gradual increase in prices for bananas everywhere, and add to the rumors that bananas might completely disappear in South America. A major threat to the banana industry is now the Tropical Race 4 (TR4) disease, which primarily affects the exported Cavendish. Cases of plantation infections in South America have already been reported in 2019, and in April this year, a case was confirmed in Peru, neighbor of Ecuador. In the meantime, Ecuadorian exporters report no cases of TR4 detection in the country and state that they are constantly monitoring the situation, but the threat can be serious.

Cavendish became the most exported banana variety in the 1950s when the rapid spread of TR4 literally wiped out Gros Michel plantations in South America. The Gros Michel variety was previously the leader in exports from the region.

Сообщение Bananas are becoming more expensive everywhere and may even disappear появились сначала на EastFruit.

Fruit farmers need to use organic products to protect their orchards because the problem of pesticide residues in fruits is becoming increasingly urgent. This is especially true in the context of tightening requirements by retail chains in the European Union as well as the removal of a number of phytosanitary products from both European and national registries, MOLDPRES reports.

According to Vitali Gorincioi, the chairman of Moldova Fruct, producers should redirect their attention to buyer demands as soon as possible. “Chain stores do not accept fruits with residues exceeding the maximum allowable norms. We do not have much time to re-orient ourselves and see how we protect our orchards from diseases and pests while offering the consumer a high-quality and harmless product,” he said.

Read also: Is the domestic apple market in Moldova worthy of attention from Moldovan traders?

The Fruit Producers and Exporters Association of Moldova, also known as Moldova Fruct,  organized a discussion of this problem within the project “Climate Reform in the Republic of Moldova” funded by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group.

“The goal of our project is to help producers meet the needs of the EU market, enter this market, and stay on it. It is very important that these requirements are known to the production sector and importers of these products provide access to the required range of phytosanitary products,” said Felicia Prikop, an agribusiness specialist with IFC.

“The future of the system for protecting horticultural plantations from diseases and pests, obviously, focuses on the gradual reduction in the use of synthetic pesticides and their replacement with biological ones. The latter will not be cheap and this will undoubtedly lead to higher production costs. This is why growers need to focus on precision farming, innovation, and better planning for comprehensive disease and pest control schemes. Our common goal is for EU and other consumers to enjoy the special taste of Moldovan fruits and to ensure that these fruits are harmless and of high quality as well as provide satisfactory profit for producers,” concluded the Executive Director of the Moldova Fruct Yuriy Fale.

Сообщение Moldovan farmers urged to switch to organic products to protect orchards появились сначала на EastFruit.