Oleksandr Khorev, coordinator of the EastFruit Weekly Ukraine project, told the Kommersant Ukrayinskyy portal in a commentary. He explained that the prices for grapes that Ukrainians see in supermarkets are actually determined by supplies from abroad. The largest players are Moldova and Turkey. Their products are available in Ukraine almost all year round.
In Ukraine itself there are many private farms growing table grapes for their own needs. Some producers are trying to enter the market, but mostly their volumes are too small and uneven to meet the requirements of retail chains,” Khorev explained.
Chain retail requires from suppliers stable batches: the same quality, caliber, variety and guaranteed volumes during the season. These are standard conditions of international trade, but Ukrainian winegrowers are not yet able to fulfill them.
As a result, Ukrainian table grapes remain a niche product, which can be found only at spontaneous markets or near stores, where farmers sell small batches “by hand”. Such products are unable to compete with imports.
“We all grow table grapes in the amateur, you could say so, segment. Yes, there are such beautiful, straight bunches sold near stores, sometimes you meet, but batches of such grapes to supply to some network, no one can make,” – said the expert.
The situation is complicated by the fact that industrial areas of vineyards in Ukraine were mainly concentrated in the south – in Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odessa regions. A significant part of these territories has now either suffered from the war or remains under the control of Russian troops, which has practically stopped industrial production of technical and table varieties.
