Poland forces Moldova out of Ukrainian apple market

Traditionally, Moldova has been the largest supplier of fresh dessert apples to Ukrainian market. Now the country loses its position after the introduction of low (5%) seasonal tariff rate for apple supplies to Ukrainian market.

According to analysts of the produce business periodical in Ukraine, "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" journal, the share of Moldavian fresh apples supply has decreased from 75-90% in 2004-2005 down to 25% in 2006. The main thing is that Moldova as CIS country has almost lost its main advantage of apple supplies comparing to Poland. Since the time of introduction of low tariff rate the tax-free trade regime between CIS countries has not played a very important role. Also, the trade would rather choose Polish apple, but not Moldavian, because of higher quality of packing, calibration and uniform content of Polish apple shipments.

During the ten months of 2006 more than 82,000 tons of fresh apples worth to the total sum of around $ 21 mln. have been imported to Ukraine. This figure is four times as high comparing to the apple import data for the same period of time in 2005 (according to official statistics). To the opinion of market players, a considerable part of apples is still supplied contraband to Ukraine.

According to the forecasts of the analysts of the Agricultural Marketing Project, more than 100,000 tons of apples can be imported to Ukraine in 2006. In addition to Poland and Moldova, relatively large shipments of apples were supplied to Ukraine from Italy, France, Greece, Netherlands, Spain, Georgia, China, Chili and Turkey. Still, the total volume of supplies done by these countries was only around 5%. To the experts' opinion, we can expect the Chinese share of apple import to Ukraine to grow in the coming years.

Source:lol.org.ua