There is no shortage, but prices are rising: what products will rise in price in the near future

Already in early April, statistics appeared in Ukraine on the increase in prices for various products. In particular, vegetables have risen in price most of all.

Why is this happening and what will rise in price even more while the war is going on in Ukraine? Segodnya was asked about this by Oleg Pendzin, a member of the Economic Discussion Club.

The entire consumer basket is provided

The expert says that it is important to understand that in Ukraine there is no shortage of basic food products for anything. And here The main reason for the rise in prices is logistical problems.

“Due to the war, the termination of traditional cooperative ties, we have extremely difficult logistical problems of delivering products from one region to another. Due to roadblocks, danger, the presence of explosive devices. And the price of food, for the same vegetables, different in different regions,” Pendzin explained.

What’s happening to vegetable prices

Traditionally in Ukraine, all early vegetables are grown either in greenhouses or imported from abroad. Early cucumbers, tomatoes, cabbage, new potatoes arrived from Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Poland.

That’s all for Ukraine today not available because the Black Sea ports are blocked. In some cases, goods are imported bypassing through other countries, and therefore the cost of them increases.

“When we are talking about an objective increase in prices for early vegetables, which traditionally in Ukraine were either imported or greenhouse, we understand that today there is no greenhouse in Transcarpathia, neither in the Kherson region, nor in the Zaporozhye region of early vegetables this year There are problems with Nikolaevshchina, Odessa region.Despite the fact that the government, in order to traditionally provide Ukrainians with vegetables in May-June, issued a cry regarding the crops of vegetables in household plots, it proposes to exchange flowers for vegetables there. so. The government is aware that today, firstly, logistical routes are complicated, and secondly, the places where those vegetables are produced have problems. Traditionally, we have a vegetable group in the Kherson region, but today it is under occupation,” the expert said.

Pendzin noted that vegetable prices will definitely rise until the end of May-beginning of Juneuntil other regions of Ukraine plant their areas. Then prices should stabilize and decline.

And yet much will depend on logistics.

“We don’t know how long the war will be, how many more bridges and roads Ukraine will lose, and this is logistics. If the bridge is blown up, then the logistics route for delivering the same chicken or potatoes appears to be one and a half times longer. This is money, fuel, a lot of additional invoices expenses. And all this is included in the price,” the expert added.

Bread can also go up in price

Because of the war, Ukraine was unable to export grain abroad. Now in the world, grain prices have jumped by 70% compared to last year due to the fact that Ukraine cannot supply products. As soon as our ports are unblocked and the grain goes abroad, Our prices will also go up.

“As long as the ports are blocked, Ukraine does not export, the price rises in the world. As soon as grain arrives, the price of grain within the country will immediately begin to rise, it will level off. In the world it will fall, but we will go up. for the growth of the price of bread. This year the structure of sown areas will change very much. They will sow what will give more income than traditionally. That is, the NBU expects that inflation will be somewhere around 20%. I agree. Food group for sure will grow by 22-23% over the year,” Pendzin explained.

In which cities the shelves are overflowing with products, and where they are not enough

Earlier we said that in some areas of Kyiv there is a shortage of dairy products. The situation with eggs, meat and canned food has improved, but it is difficult to buy inexpensive cheese or sausage.

The situation near Kiev is somewhat different. For example, it is very difficult to find fresh fish, the choice of cereals, cheeses and bread has significantly decreased. And sometimes it’s hard to find even salt or soda. Also, in the shops of some areas of the Kiev region there is no yeast and bananas.

But the situation in the country in the east it is much worse.

“In general, we have a food collapse in supermarkets. People live at the expense of small shops. In one supermarket, we only have pearl barley, flour, butter, some fruits and onions. It is impossible to buy sugar,” said a resident of the Donetsk region.

Residents of Dnipro report that it is impossible to find yeast and vanillin anywhere. Absolutely the situation is different in the west. For example, in Bukovel there are enough goods.

“Everything is here, except for the normal adequate prices”, locals write.

And here in Lviv dry rations, sweets and hygiene products disappeared from supermarkets. However, Lviv residents assume that this is due to the collection of humanitarian aid.

We also talked about how inflation accelerated in Ukraine, and how to get unemployment benefits during the war.