According to the portal Eastfruit, the first wholesale consignments of Uzbek-made onions have already entered the wholesale markets of Ukraine. Despite the fact that onions from Uzbekistan are offered in Ukraine 15-25% more expensive than locally produced onions, the demand for them is good. The main reason for the willingness of the Ukrainian buyer to pay more for imported onions is the higher quality parameters of the products. Ukrainian producers, in anticipation of an increase in onion prices in winter and spring, tried to store all high-quality onions in vegetable stores. Therefore, the local market is dominated by products of not the highest quality, which creates opportunities for the import of quality vegetables during this period.
There is also information about the purchases of onions by Ukrainian traders not only in Uzbekistan, but also in Kazakhstan.
Average wholesale prices for onions in Ukraine, despite quality problems, are on average 2,5 times higher than a year earlier at the same time, and higher than in 2019. They have not changed since mid-August 2021, which is typical for seasons with equilibrium supply and demand.
The last time onion prices rose in the fall in 2018, however, then, closer to the new year, they began to decline and continued to decline until April 2019. This was followed by a sharp rise in prices to a record level in history in May 2019, but then the reasons for the rise in prices were due to a general shortage of products in Europe.
At the moment, onion prices in Ukraine are higher than in any other country in Eastern Europe. Only in Belarus wholesale prices for onions are comparable to Ukrainian ones. It is interesting that in Russia wholesale prices for onions are currently 33% lower than in Ukraine, although there are also problems with product quality there.
In Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, you can now buy onions twice as cheap as in Ukraine. But the difference in absolute prices is not too high (about 15 US cents). That is why the first consignments of onions from Central Asia are offered on the Ukrainian market at a higher price than local products.
However, it is worth paying attention to the downward trend in onion prices in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, which has been established over the past two weeks. This significantly increases the chances of exporting products to Ukraine. Already in the near future, after the farmers run out of onions that cannot be stored for a long time, prices for them will start to rise rapidly.