EastFruit continues to share intriguing insights from the presentation of FAO economist Andriy Yarmak during the year-end berry event in Moldova for 2023 titled “Berry Market 2023”, organized by the Moldovan Berry Association “Pomuşoarele Moldovei”.
According to the expert, among the top 10 fastest-growing berry markets globally, Poland leads in relative import growth rates. On average, Poland has been increasing its berry imports by 24% annually or by $68 million USD. The primary reason behind this surge is the ability to purchase inexpensive frozen berries from Ukraine. As previously reported, over the past five years, Ukraine has been the world’s champion in terms of the growth rate of berry exports, with Poland being its primary market. This calculation includes both fresh and frozen berries.
Poland’s most rapid increase in imports was observed for fresh blackberries and frozen raspberries. These categories were the fastest-growing in terms of berry exports from Ukraine, making Poland the primary sales market for Ukrainian companies. Fresh blackberries and frozen raspberries accounted for over 60% of Poland’s berry imports in 2022.
Read also: Ukraine reduces its dependency on Poland in raspberry exports and catches up in the exporters’ ranking.
Slightly lagging behind Poland, China increased its berry imports by 21% annually. When it comes to absolute growth figures, the U.S. outperformed everyone. The U.S. saw an average annual growth rate of 14% in berry imports, with an annual increase of $578 million USD in fresh and frozen berry imports alone! This underscores the paramount importance for Ukrainian suppliers to primarily focus on this market, as well as the Canadian market, where the annual berry import growth exceeded $95 million USD.
Additionally, in absolute figures, the Netherlands and Germany also demonstrated high growth rates in berry imports, increasing by $133 million USD and $114 million USD annually, respectively.
Source: EastFruit