High prices for berries in the season-2025 were due to spring frosts, which in some regions of Ukraine damaged products on 20-50% of areas, as well as the global conjuncture, the president of the Ukrainian Fruit and Vegetable Association (UPOA) Taras Bashtannik said.
“If we talk about the prices of 2025, the losses on all major berry positions ranged from 20-50% due, first of all, to spring frosts. Crop losses also befell all major exporting countries of the main positions – garden strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, cherries,” he said at the Agro2Food exhibition.
The head of the association noted that high prices for products allowed producers to compensate the final financial result.
Bashtannik reminded that during the war years Ukrainian berry farming lost a lot of production areas, in particular, in Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, where early berries were grown.
“We can only state that, for example, for the times from 2022 to the present time planted perennial plantings, including with sin together, under the state grant programme 3.8 thousand hectares. And if without state aid, we are talking about 4.5-5 thousand hectares. In general, berrying is now carried out on 17-20 thousand hectares”, – said the head of UPOA.
According to the expert, now in Ukraine 95% of all grown raspberries are processed, which is mainly sent for freezing. At the same time, 95% of this product is exported.
“Ukraine from 2017 to 2025 inclusive from a net importer or zero import-export balance of frozen raspberries has moved to the category of the largest exporter of frozen raspberries in Europe,” stated Bashtannik.
According to his information, no more than 5% of cultivated blueberries are processed in Ukraine. The rest is mainly exported fresh, given the economic feasibility. However, there is a rapid global trend in this crop – in the USA 50% of blueberries are processed, in Europe – 30%. In Ukraine, this figure is approaching 30%.
Garden strawberries in Ukraine are processed 25-30% of the gross harvest. Almost the entire volume of processed products remains in Ukraine for domestic consumption.
“We, unfortunately, need to recognise that Ukraine as a producer-exporter of frozen strawberries in Europe and the world has nothing to do, given the cost and prices offered by Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, China,” the expert said.
Speaking about the production of jams and jam, Bashtannik noted that in this segment is digested craft production. Its production is enough to meet the needs of HoReCa, but retail mainly covers the needs of Ukrainians at the expense of imports. The production of several powerful domestic players is not enough to meet the needs of supermarket buyers.
“Barring some black swans, which it is not clear whether they will surface or not, the industry’s expectations for 2026 are positive. Ukraine will continue to increase its presence in Europe’s fresh and processed berry market. Despite the labour shortage, we look more attractive in terms of production costs compared to European countries. Therefore, we will take market share away from the countries that have traditionally dominated the European market. These are Poland and Serbia, first of all,” summarised the UPOA head.