Ukraine war

Despite the War, Ukraine Set a Record of Blueberries Exports in 2022

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Despite the invasion of the Russian occupation troops, the damage to part of the plantations in the central and northern regions of the country, Ukrainian growers increased blueberry exports in 2022 to a record high!

The total export of fresh blueberries from Ukraine in 2022 exceeded 2 500 tonnes, an increase of 1.5 times compared to 2021. The previous record for blueberry exports from Ukraine, reached in 2019, was exceeded by 11%. And this is even though there were no exports of blueberries in 2022 from Ukraine to Belarus, which was one of the main markets for Ukrainian blueberries until 2022.

Poland has traditionally been the main market for blueberries from Ukraine. In 2022, Poland imported 2.2 times more blueberries from Ukraine than in 2021, and the export volume reached 1 350 tonnes per season. Thus, more than 50% of all Ukrainian blueberries were sent to Poland. At the same time, Poland was only a transit point for blueberries from Ukraine to other EU countries, because the export of fresh blueberries from Poland many times exceeds the volume of blueberry exports from Ukraine.

Other major importers of blueberries from Ukraine – the Netherlands, the UK, and Moldova – also sharply increased their import volumes: by 80%, 68%, and 2.4 times, respectively. For the first time, wholesale batches of blueberries from Ukraine also went to Spain, Germany, Georgia, and Finland. However, to countries where blueberries were previously delivered by planes – the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, and Singapore, they were not exported due to Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine.

www.east-fruit.com

‘Ukraine Will not Have Potato Shortage This Winter, Despite War’

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According to a statement from the Agriculture Ministry, Ukraine will not face a shortage of potatoes this winter, despite its refusal to import from Russia and Belarus. Ukraine traditionally imports potatoes from these two states, but it has halted all supplies after the Russian invasion. The Ministry said in a statement around 12 million tons of potatoes had already been harvested as of October 25, or 73% of an expected harvest of around 16.6 million tons. It gave no data for the 2021 harvest.

It said the 2022 area sown to potatoes had fallen by 36%, due to hostilities in many regions. Potatoes are the most widely consumed vegetable in Ukraine. Almost all potatoes in Ukraine are harvested by small households.

www.freshplaza.com

 

Ukrainian Apple Season 2022

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The Ukrainian apple season should be in full swing right now, but demand seems to be at a low point right now. On the growers’ side, some are opting to send all of their harvest toward processing facilities, to minimize both risks and costs as much as possible.

Volodymyr Gurzhiy of Ukrainian apple exporter USPA states that the war in Ukraine is just one factor in the very challenging season they’re currently in: “Every season is different, however, the season of 2022-2023 is going to be even more outstanding. The war in Ukraine brought a lot of changes and challenges, which affects all the markets considerably. For Ukrainian exporters, the most painful is the closed Belarusian market, as they had a significant share in our export in the previous seasons, skyrocketed energy costs, huge prices for packaging, and double and sometimes triple logistics cost compared to the same week of the previous year. I don’t think we are unique in all that circumstances in the whole of Europe; however, our logistics costs are enormously high. It’s going to be hard to compete until the Ukrainian ports are to be opened.” (more…)

Ukraine War Drives Port of Constanta Rapid Container Growth

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Port of Constanta in Romania, which is located at the crossroads of the trade routes linking markets of the landlocked countries of Eastern Europe with the Caucasus, Middle East and Central Asia, became a cargo-transit hub for all kinds of transport including ro-ro, according to a recent report by Informall BG, a cargo analytical bureau in the Black Sea region.

Under normal market conditions, the port of Constanta’s annual container turnover growth rate is at 2-3%. However, Informall data shows that Constanta increased its laden container volume by 10,4% in the first half of 2022 vs the same period in 2021.

The reason behind it is the war in Ukraine, according to Informall, which noted that while Ukrainian container terminals remain blocked, a large share of container traffic destined to Ukraine is moving to Constanta followed by transit-truck or train delivery to a final destination in Ukraine.

It is important to note that 2M Alliance continues dominating over Romanian container marketplace handling almost 40% of total laden traffic in Constanta. The two partners of the largest container alliance in the world, Maersk and MSC, gained 6,75% of additional container volume in H1 2022 vs H1 2021 in Constanta. Similarly to Romania, 2M Alliance controls 47% of Ukrainian container traffic on the Black Sea.

www.container-news.com