According to Fruit-Inform Project, sales of imported fruits are rather difficult in Russia in the current season. As of today, wholesale prices for bananas and citrus fruits are on average 2 times lower than a year before that, nevertheless, enables sales to increase only slightly.
Partially such a situation is observed due to importers’ overestimates of sales volumes in summer, as they were based on volumes of last year and the first half of 2011 when prices were high and demand was traditionally exceeding all expectations. However, the demand for imported citrus fruits, bananas and exotics sharply fell in July this year when the supply of cheap domestic vegetables started rapidly growing in the Russian market and early August when the market began to be supplied with local melons, watermelons and fruit.
Source: www.dp.ru