In 2021 Russia will set a new record for watermelon imports. With several months still left till the end of the year, the record has already been set – as of the end of July 2021, imports of watermelon in Russia reached 46 thousand mt, while in 2020, in total, 38,3 thousand mt of watermelon were imported.
Thus, according to our estimates, by the end of 2021, imports of fresh watermelon to Russia may exceed 70 thousand mt for the first time, and the import volume will grow by about 80% compared to 2020’s record imports.
In certain circumstances, the imports of watermelons to the Russian Federation may even double. in 2021, watermelon prices across Europe were unusually low. Even if Russia could not directly import watermelons from Ukraine where farmers were ready to give them from the field for free, imports from Central Asia, where prices during the peak export in June-July, were also the lowest in recent years. (more…)