Photo from UNIAN
The price of beetroots in Ukraine more than doubled since last winter.
The Ukrainian Horticultural Association (UHA) says wholesale buyers on the Ukrainian market see a shortage of beetroots, a key ingredient of Ukrainian borscht, which has caused a 33.3% increase in its price over the past week.
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"Ukrainian wholesale companies and retailers are increasingly facing problems in purchasing the necessary volumes of beetroots and have already reported a shortage of this product. In addition, buyers have begun to look for an alternative in foreign markets. So, Ukraine may soon start massive imports of beetroots," the UHA's press service said in a statement on December 3.
Ukrainian producers, given the lack of supply in the market and speculative demand, continue raising prices of beetroots. As a result, they went up in price by an average of only a third within a week. Farmers are now offering beetroots at UAH 5.5-UAH 7 per kilogram (US$0.2-$0.25), depending on the quality, batch size, and the region, the association said.
"For comparison, a week ago, the prices in this segment started from UAH 4 per kilogram ($0.14)," it said.
According to the association, prices of beetroots in Ukraine more than doubled from the beginning of the winter of 2017. The produce is offered at record prices for this period. Experts say that farmers plan to further increase prices. Some of them even refuse to sell beetroots, waiting for the opportunity to sell this vegetable on even more favorable conditions.
As UNIAN reported, the Ukrainian Horticultural Association earlier stated there was a shortage of tomatoes on the Ukrainian market due to the termination of their sales by Ukrainian plants and insufficient supplies from Turkey.
In 2017, Ukrainian farmers harvested 9.3 million tonnes of vegetable crops from 446,300 hectares.