CURRENT PROSPECTS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF UKRAINIAN FRUIT AND BERRY EXPORTS TO FOREIGN MARKETS

Abstract

The article is devoted to the urgent problem of Ukraine's export of fruit and berry products to international markets in modern conditions. The growing demand for this type of goods is emphasized due to the fact that they not only satisfy people's needs for food, but also act as valuable sources of nutrients useful for humans. A study of the geographical structure of exports and imports of fruit and berry products on a global scale for 2024 was conducted - 20 leading countries of suppliers and buyers of this type of product were identified and their positions in 2014 were compared. A significant increase in the volumes of both exports and imports of products was noted. It was found that in 2024, the top ten countries in global fruit and berry exports were Spain, the Netherlands, the USA, Thailand, China, Chile, Mexico, Italy, Turkey, and Peru. Together, they provided more than 50% of global exports of goods in the subgroup under consideration. A number of these countries are in the import ranking because, due to their geographical location, flows of fruits, berries, nuts, and their processed products are sent to neighboring countries through their infrastructure. It was emphasized that Ukraine cannot yet claim leadership in the world export ranking of fruit and berry products, but has the opportunity to significantly increase supplies of these products to international markets, as in recent years there has been an increase in berry exports to the European Union countries. Using economic and mathematical programming methods, a forecast of export supplies of fruit and berry products of Ukraine for 2026 was calculated. According to the developed model, the volume of product exports tends to increase annually. The conclusions emphasize that in order to develop the export of fruit and berry products, Ukraine needs to overcome a number of problems, such as the difficulty of attracting financial resources to introduce innovations into production, the dependence of the price formation for frozen products on weather conditions, harvest and demand for it; lack of sufficient domestic equipment for shock freezing of fruits and vegetables, etc.