In March 2019, Ukraine reached a new record in the export of walnuts, having doubled its supply to the foreign market compared to the same month last year.

The export volume of nuts in the first half of the 2018/19 marketing year reached the mark of 43 thousand tons, which is 39% more than last year's sales figure, EastFruit analysts share information.

But in monetary terms, the situation is not so rosy. For the first 6 months of the 2018/19 marketing year, revenue from product sales decreased to $ 94.3 million and was 10% lower than in the same period of the previous MY. Such a decrease in revenue is associated with a general drop in walnut prices in European countries, which are the main consumers of the product from Ukraine. An alternative for traders could be the market of Middle Eastern countries, but not everything is as good there as we would like.

Ukrainian exporters offer the foreign market mainly non-sorted nuts. Against the backdrop of the growing supply of high-quality walnuts of excellent quality from the United States, demand in Europe for a product from Ukraine fell sharply. The American varietal nut has also conquered the Middle East market. And in the non-poppy nut segment, Ukraine loses to Uzbekistan, says UN spokesman Andrei Yarmak.

According to experts, this season, export deliveries of Ukrainian walnuts will increase by 1.5 times. At the same time, revenue is likely to be higher than last year by no more than 5-7%.