Russian market grows approximately 15% a year. Mostly it happens by means of fruit import. The most important factors influencing the market dynamics are the fruit prices and the human wellbeing. Other factors are the growing nutrition culture and fashion on healthy life style.
The most important Russian fruit are apples. The apple harvest in Russia is going to be good this year, 4% more than last year, but Russian apples will be hardly preserved until the new year. Apples come to Russia from more than 40 countries, but the main suppliers are Poland and China. In volume terms the part of apples and pears in the total import volume makes more than 28%. After apples and pears come citrus (26.5%) and bananas (19%). Experts note that the apple import is growing particularly fast from China. A large amount of apples also come from Poland, and pears mostly come from Argentina and Belgium.
During the last 10 years the citrus volume at the domestic Russian market has grown from 471 861 tons to 1 480 695 tons. Last year the total cost of the citrus market in Russia has made 1.2 milliard dollars. This year this index is not likely to change a lot.
Experts notice that the demand on tangerines, oranges, grapefruit and lemons is growing because of the improvement in the social living standard and because of the increasing of fresh fruit sales volumes in the supermarkets.
Tangerines are the most popular citrus in Russia, and their sales volumes cede only to bananas and apples. The demand on lemons and limes is more or less stable, and the popularity of grapefruit has been growing since the year 2005. The main citrus suppliers in Russia are Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, RSA and China.
Bananas are also very popular in Russia. Every Russian consumes approximately 4.5—5 kilos of bananas a year. According to the Russian importers, the high level of banana consumption is due to low prices (not more than 1 dollar per kg). The main supplier is Ecuador (90%). Other banana suppliers are Columbia, Costa-Rica, Panama and the Philippines.
The most important suppliers of grapes to the Russian market are Uzbekistan—45% and Turkey—16%.
The most popular exotic fruit in Russia is pineapple. It makes 70% of all the exotic fruit.
The least popular are pitaya, litchee, starfruit, durian and rambutan. Exotic fruit make 3 % of the cost of all the fruit import.
The most popular formats for fruit sales are wholesale centers and markets. About 70% of all the fruit are sold there. The prices are usually lower at the markets than in the supermarkets. Also consumers think the quality of fruit is better at the markets.
However, experts suppose that the consumption of fruit in supermarkets will grow, because the consumers can combine the purchase of fruit with acquisition of other goods in order to save time.
Source: www.fruitnews.ru