Apple buyers from Asia, Middle East and the EU are coming to Ukraine in December

• Nov 12, 2018

Buyers from many countries discovered unique characteristics of Ukrainian apples in MY 2017/18, when the country suddenly appeared on the world map of apple exporters and will be gathering together in Kiev for the first time to meet with largest suppliers on December 05, 2018.

Premium quality combined with a very competitive pricing makes Ukrainian fruits very attractive to buyers. In the current season Ukrainian apples are even more competitively priced than Polish while Ukraine has much better logistics to Asia and the Middle East thanks to deep water ports in the Black Sea.

Why has have the buyers not discovered Ukraine as a supplier before? While Ukraine is one of the top exporters of grains and oilseeds in the world, it was traditionally selling most of its fruits and berries to Russia until recent invasion of Russian army into Crimea and eastern parts of Ukraine. With the trade ban, Ukraine started looking for buyers elsewhere and in 2016-2018 exported its fruits, berries and nuts to more than 40 world countries getting a very positive feedback from buyers.

What’s so special about fruits from Ukraine? While most people know about unique and fertile black soils of Ukraine called chernozem, very few know that it is a very sunny, hot and dry place in the summer. It rarely rains in Ukraine in the summer and due to high latitude of the country daylight lasts up to 18 hrs, assuring that fruits get plenty of sunlight. Black soils help fruits get plenty of minerals and vitamins and they warm up very well to assure fruits on all levels get enough heat. Moreover, unlike in lower latitude countries, nights are much cooler in Ukraine helping fruits develop deeper taste and perfect colouring.

Dry climate also means that there are fewer pests and diseases and farmers use much less chemicals than farmers in the other countries to protect their fruits, making products cleaner and healthier. Warm summers allow Ukrainian farmers to grow nearly all varieties of apples while, e.g., Polish farmers limit their production to shorter vegetation period varieties. Thus, Ukraine even exported some fresh apple to Poland in the previous season.

There are problems as well. The downside of Ukrainian suppliers is that many of them are have limited experience in long logistics for fresh produce and international trade as they only exported to Russia in the past. The upside is that Ukrainian farms are the largest in Europe – many of them manage from 100 to 500 and even more hectares of apple orchards. Therefore, they have their own storage, sorting and packaging and buyers can save money by avoiding intermediaries.

Thanks to activities of Ukrainian horticultural association (UHA), during just one week after announcement was made, 11 companies confirmed their participation in the trade forum on December 05, 2018 in Kyiv. Largest importers are coming from India, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Sweden, Spain, Oman and Poland. Another 10 companies are considering coming to the forum and will be making their final decision shortly. UHA will try to accommodate as many companies is possible also it will close the registration after 20 companies limit is reached.

From Ukraine more than 100 companies were interested in meetings but so far 20 largest apple and berry suppliers have already pre-selected. UHA will make sure only companies with necessary experience and good quality of produce attend the B2B meetings as one of its goals is to maintain a high reputation of Ukrainian fruits on the global market.

If you are interested in attending the forum as a buyer or supplier, please contact Ievgen Kuzin, at +380965836323 or fruit.intl@fruit-inform.com