The area of apple orchards in Ukraine reached a new anti-record

The apple season in the 2022/23 marketing year for Ukraine turned out to be one of the most difficult in the last decade. According to EastFruit analysts, problems with the increase in the price of fertilizers and consumables, labor shortages, low prices for industrial apples, no increase in prices for fresh apples for a significant part of the season, problematic exports and complicated logistics, blows to the energy infrastructure — all this became an obstacle for farmers.

But this is not all that Ukrainian gardeners faced during the war. They were unable to secure exports and had to settle for low prices and reduced sales volumes. Against the background of negative price trends of the previous season and attacks on energy infrastructure, this increased the trend of uprooting apple orchards.

As a result, the country even had to import apples at the end of last season, although before that, even in the conditions of the start of full-scale Russian aggression, Ukraine did not need imported apples in the spring of 2022. Areas under apple orchards, shrinking since 2016 by an average of 3% annually, will reach a new minimum in Ukraine in 2023. Currently, it is not possible to name the exact area of the gardens, but this forecast will be updated to clear parameters based on the results of harvesting.

Also, the question of the yield of apples in Ukraine remains open, because it is affected by weather conditions. The estimated yield in the country can be expected at the level of 2022, because these negative factors were already present then. This means that the absence of changes in this indicator against the background of a decrease in area will lead to a decrease in the production of apples in 2023. Therefore, there is currently a forecast that this year Ukraine will collect one of the lowest apple harvests in at least the last 8 years.