For five years, supplies from abroad have grown by almost one and a half times. This is a historical maximum, experts say.
Ukrainians started to consume more fruits. This is evidenced by the official statistics on the level of fruit consumption and the growth in import volumes. In 2020, Ukraine imported almost 1 million tons of various fruits.
Bananas, tangerines, oranges, lemons, and peaches are often brought to Ukraine. The number of foreign grapefruits and persimmons also increased on the shelves. The situation is the opposite of apples: they account for only 1% of total imports. The rest of the apples are Ukrainian.
The leading importer of exotic fruits to Ukraine is Turkey: the supplies amounted to 269.000 tons of fruits last year. Turkey's share in the total import of exotic fruits is 28.8%.
Also in the top 6: Ecuador (12.9%), Greece (6.2%), Costa Rica (5.8%), Spain (5.4%), and Egypt (5.0%). Together, these six countries formed more than 64% of the value of imports of this group's products in Ukraine in 2020.
A significant increase in imports was also recorded in another segment, traditional for Ukrainian producers of fruit and berry products. For six months of 2020, Ukraine increased purchases of apples and pears, the import of which exceeded $10.5 million in the reporting period. A year earlier, the import of these fruits in value terms amounted to $7.1 million.
