Stone fruit producers are unable to supply Ukraine’s domestic market, exports are out of the question

This was stated by Volodymyr Hurzhii, head of the fruit exporting company USPA Fruit, in an article for the magazine Sadivnytstvo po-ukrainsky, AgroTimes reports.

«In fact, Ukraine exports apples and blueberries — and that’s it. In the stone fruit segment, we simply do not exist on the global market,» the expert said.

According to him, the main constraint is not only production, but also infrastructure. For comparison, Spanish producers are able to process up to 1,000 tonnes of stone fruit per day and ship dozens of trucks, ensuring stable export supplies.

In Ukraine, however, the sector still cannot guarantee even a steady supply of quality produce to the domestic market. Because of this, producers are not ready to work under long-term contracts, while exports remain sporadic.

«We should first be able to supply Ukraine itself with quality stone fruit,» Hurzhii stressed.

In his opinion, without improving quality consistency, volumes and logistics, it is premature to speak about a full-fledged presence of Ukrainian stone fruit on the global market.