Over the past five years, Ukraine has seen an impressive increase in frozen raspberry exports to the European Union and has become the second largest supplier of this berry to the European market. This is evidenced by the data of the frozen raspberry market review prepared by the Reform Support Team of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine (RST Mineconomy) as part of the Export Booster project.

During the period from 2018 to 2022, exports of frozen raspberries increased 5.4 times in monetary terms and 2.7 times in physical volumes.

The largest markets for Ukrainian frozen raspberries are Poland and Germany. Other EU countries, such as the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, Belgium and France, are also showing significant interest in Ukrainian berries.

The study shows that Ukraine has become a key player in the supply of frozen raspberries to the EU. This happened in the context of active growth in demand for this product, especially in 2021 and 2022.

During this time, Ukraine ranked second in terms of exports of frozen raspberries to the EU after Serbia, with exports of $121 million. Thus, Ukrainian producers of frozen raspberries accounted for almost a quarter (24.2%) of the growth in imports of this product group to the EU.

In total, in 2022, the EU imported frozen raspberries worth 1.13 billion dollars. The average annual growth of raspberry imports over the past five years was 13.9%. The largest average annual growth in imports in 2018-2022 was demonstrated by Lithuania (54.9%), Bulgaria (36.7%), Poland (36.4%), Slovenia (28.4%), Romania (25.6%) and Greece (25.4%).

Ukraine has become the fourth largest exporter of frozen raspberries in the world in monetary terms, behind only Serbia, Poland and Chile. In 2022, these three countries accounted for 54% of all global frozen raspberry exports, while Ukraine accounted for 6%, according to trademap.org.

Denys Shemyakin, Director of the Reform Support Team at the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, said: "Increasing Ukrainian exports and integrating our producers into global supply chains are necessary steps to develop and strengthen the economy. Ukrainian raspberries remain competitive on the global market, even in times of war, which opens up many prospects for farmers."