Ukraine has unexpectedly become a competitor for Moldova on the European plum market and one of the surprises of the fresh plum season in 2021 is the record low price on the Ukrainian market, IPN reports, quoting EastFfruit - an information and analytics platform for the growth of the horticulture business.

However, another surprise was that Ukraine starts to put pressure on Moldova in foreign markets, despite the almost complete lack of experience in exporting plums. First of all, quality parameters and stable supplies of plums are important for fruit importers from the European Union, but in 2021 Ukraine is doing well with the quality of plums and even the volumes offered by growers are quite large.

Therefore, Ukrainian plums are actively exported to Poland, where prices are much higher. Also, Ukrainian plums are being supplied to the traditional Moldovan sales market – Romania. Another market where Ukrainian plums are much more competitive than Moldovan ones is Belarus. Transport costs for exporting plums to Belarus are much lower, because fruit exporters from Moldova have to supply products to Belarus through the territory of Ukraine.

The largest importer of plums in the region is, of course, Russia. In fact, it is the world’s main buyer of plums. However, plum prices there began to decline, and it is suggested this was due to the re-exports of Ukrainian plums through Belarus.

However, there is another unexpected factor that affects the Russian plum market – exports from Georgia. Prices for plums in Georgia are now even lower than in Ukraine. Georgia has not previously been a major supplier of plums to Russia, but it looks like it will become one in 2021, noted EastFruit.