Russians buy-up Bulgarian cherries

Russians for the second year are about to leave Bulgarians without cherries. An investor from Russia has requested 75 tons per week from the fruit in late Kyustendil. The application was received by the municipality mayor Peter Paounov. It will be passed on to farmers who have yet to agree on the purchase price.

Last year, Russians burdened their trucks with Bulgarian cherries for their market for a colossal wholesale price of BGN 2.50 per kilogram. The Bulgarian resellers offered only BGN 1.20 and were left empty-handed. At the moment, they are twisting the hands of local farmers with BGN 0.60 per kilogram of the early fruit which is then sold on the market for BGN 1.60 to BGN 2. There is an interest in the cherries from Kyustendil from Romania, Moldova, Germany and England as well, the municipality praises.

Another reason due to which the Kyustendil cherries may not make it to the Bulgarian markets is the heavy rain that hit the plantation days ago. Hopefully the hail will not be repeated, otherwise, farmers may be left without a harvest.

Because of the good market for the Bulgarian cherries, hundreds of acres of new plantations are created in villages such as Vinogradets and Karabunar. Many of the new cherry farmers are young people and this year they have enjoyed a good harvest and market conditions, they say.

Source: www.freshplaza.com

Russia has become the largest importer of cherries from Iran for the first time

By the middle of June 2012, Russia has become the largest importer of cherries not only from Moldova, but also from Iran.
Russia remains one of the world’s major importers of cherry: it is up to 75 MTM tons per year, while the Russian domestic cherry production is up to 70 MTM per year.
In 2011, Russia became the second largest exporter of cherry from Iran for the first time. In 2012, Russian export from Iran has been already evaluated as $ 6 million. Beside the cherry export from Iran, export of other products (such as potatoes, vegetables, tea, citrus fruits, olives, rice and processed products) is also growing.
In Moldova, according to the forecasts, the cherry harvest will be up to 10 MTM in 2012, that is 15% more than in 2011, and more than 50% of the harvest will be exported; and it is forecast that at least 65% of the exported cherry will go to Russia.
Export from the Caucasus region and Central Asia to the Russian market has a share of 20%.

Source: www.fruitnews.ru