It has become abnormally cold in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan since January 10, 2023. As of January 13, 2023, the air temperature in the capital of Uzbekistan was -13-15° C during the daytime, and up to -20° C at night. As EastFruit wrote a week before the onset of cold weather, given problematic access to sufficient volumes of gas, a decrease in temperature in greenhouses can lead to plant diseases, worse product quality, and lower harvest. Project analysts expected a possible increase in prices for greenhouse vegetables as a result of cold weather.

Over the past few days, vegetable prices in Uzbekistan have already changed as a reaction to abnormally low temperatures. At the same time, other types of vegetables have risen in price even more than greenhouse vegetables. The average wholesale prices for greenhouse vegetables increased by 8-14% over the week, while prices for potatoes, onions, and carrots increased by 11-18% since last week.

According to EastFruit price monitoring, the average wholesale price for greenhouse and other vegetables increased from 6 to 13 January 2023 as follows:

• greenhouse green bell pepper – from 32 000 to 35 000 UZS/kg (from $2.83 to $3.1), by 8.6%
• greenhouse red bell pepper – from 30 000 to 35 000 UZS/kg (from $2.66 to $3.1), by 14.3%
• greenhouse red round tomato – from 15 000 to 17 000 UZS/kg (from $1.33 to $1.50), by 11.8%
• greenhouse cherry tomato – 43 000 to 50 000 UZS/kg (from $3.81 to $4.42), by 14%
• potatoes – from 4 000 to 4 500 UZS/kg (from $0.35 to $0.40), by 11.1%
• onions – 5 000 to 6 000 UZS/kg (from $0.44 to $0.53), by 16.7%
• carrots – from 3 300 to 4 000 UZS/kg (from $0.29 to $0.35), by 17.5%.

At the same time, wholesale prices for greenhouse pink tomatoes and greenhouse cucumbers did not change during the period under review. It should be noted that the current prices for greenhouse cucumbers are at a record high level. As of January 13, 2023, the average wholesale price for smooth short greenhouse cucumbers was 35 000 UZS/kg ($3.1), which is almost 2 times higher than on the same date in 2020-2022.

Source - https://www.freshplaza.com