Bad weather in Ukraine halves berry harvest
4 October 12:04
The 2025 berry season in Ukraine turned out to be difficult: due to frost and other weather risks, farmers lost about 50% of their crop, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports, citing EastFruit.
At the same time, those producers who preserved their crops and had markets were able to earn record profits.
This was reported by Anna Lutsko, an agronomic consultant, in her column on AgoTimes.
According to her, the largest losses were in the Boryspil district of Kyiv region – up to 70% of the blueberry crop died in the winter, and the rest was destroyed by hail in July. In Volyn, the loss of berries reached 80-90%, including blueberries in the forest that froze. In the Lviv region, the cold damaged about 20% of the plantations, but mountain plantations saved part of the harvest. Ivano-Frankivsk and Zakarpattia regions suffered minimal losses, up to 15%.
In Dnipropetrovs’k region, frosts down to -7°C destroyed up to 30% of the garden strawberries. Raspberries were delayed in development, and only half of the mid-season harvest was harvested at the time of harvest. In Cherkasy region, however, the season was almost loss-free.
Despite the difficult year, prices for blueberries were the highest in the last five years and remained stable until the end of the season.
“The average price for BigBlue organic blueberries was above UAH 200 per kilogram. Nowadays, a kilogram of quality frozen raspberries is offered at EUR 4-4.5, and organic raspberries at EUR 5-6.5,” said Lutsko.
She also noted that the consumption of organic berries is growing in Ukraine, which indicates an increase in environmental awareness and health concerns among the population.
