The first sizable numbers of early potatoes from the new harvest made their way to wholesale marketplaces in the capital of Uzbekistan seven to ten days ago. Analysts at EastFruit report that the market saw its first wholesale shipments of early potatoes three weeks later than in 2017.
On April 7th, 2023, the average wholesale price of early potatoes was 16,000 UZS per kilogram, or $1.41. During March 11-17, 2022, the capital city’s marketplaces offered the first wholesale lots of early potatoes from the new harvest at the same price.
Early potato prices, however, tend to drop precipitously, as they did last year. Their average wholesale price dropped by 44%, or $0.79, or 16,000 UZS, between March 17 and April 7 of last year.
The average wholesale price of early potatoes climbed 1.80% from April 7 of the previous year to April 7 of 2023.
We’d like to remind you that planting potatoes in Uzbekistan’s southernmost Surkhandarya region, from which the first wholesale batches of early potatoes enter the capital’s markets, didn’t get underway until about three weeks later in 2023 than it did in 2022, as reported by EastFruit at the beginning of March 2023.
This means that the potato harvest has moved as well. This delay is due to the unusually cold weather experienced in Uzbekistan in January.
Potatoes grown in 2022 in Uzbekistan are already selling at wholesale rates that are on par with those seen in 2021. In comparison to early potatoes, the average wholesale price for regular potatoes on April 7, 2023, was 4,000 UZS per kilogram, or $0.35. There is a market, nonetheless, for both new and old potatoes.
It is expected that wholesale prices for early potatoes would drop considerably over the next several weeks, assuming that the price dynamics of early potatoes will be similar to those of prior years and drop at about the same rate as in previous years.