According to the annual UCAB survey, this year Ukrainians might waste food products totaling to UAH 430 mln. Compared with last year this figure dropped by 21% and is the lowest over five years of conducting survey.

Half of respondents (51%, 8% more compared with last year) believe that they will eat all products prepared for festive table, one third (32%) of them believe that no more than 10% of food will be spoiled and the rest of respondents concede that 10-20% of the products might be wasted.

"Compared with last year the number of respondents who expect to throw no more than 10% of the products has doubled. Given that prices for food and beverages increased by almost 50% and purchasing power reduced, we can conclude that this year the majority of Ukrainians will spend on festive table less than last year and they will plan expenditures carefully", -  UCAB expert on agricultural markets Eugene Dvornik says.

Most respondents (79%) are going to spend up to 1000 UAH on festive table, 17% of them are ready to spend within 1000-3000 UAH and only 5% of respondents plan to spend more than 3000 UAH. These figures are almost the same as last year, only the number of respondents that plan to spend less than 1000 UAH increased by 3%.

Olivier salad – the most popular New Year dish - is another aspect of UCAB survey. During last three years of the survey the number of respondents planning to cook it varied slightly: 68% in 2015, 67% in 2013 and 63% - in 2014. So two-thirds of Ukrainians still plan to prepare this salad for celebration. However, they will spend half as much on it because of rising cost of the components. For example, the price of potatoes during the year increased from 3.2 UAH/kg to 6 UAH/kg, of carrots - from 2.9 UAH/kg to 10.3 UAH/kg and onions - 3.1 UAH/kg to 10.1 UAH/kg. The price of sausage on average increased by 31% to 55.7 UAH/kg, the price of eggs rose by 62% to 23.3 UAH per dozen. Price of canned peas and cucumbers increased on average by 20-30%. Thus 2 kg of salad costs 80 UAH on average.

The Association "Ukrainian Agribusiness Club" has been conducting a survey on food wastes during the New Year holidays since 2011.

In general, according to Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), each year about 1.3 bln. tons of food are spoiled, which is about one-third of products intended for human consumption.

Association "Ukrainian Agribusiness Club" 

3 floor, 146 Zhylianska Str.

01032 Kyiv, Ukraine

Phone/Fax: +380 44 2362097/79

feschenko@ucab.ua 

Anna Feshchenko

www.ucab.ua

The Association "Ukrainian Agribusiness Club" (UCAB) www.ucab.ua was founded in 2007 to protect the economic and professional interests of players of agribusiness in Ukraine. UCAB is a unique platform in Ukraine for establishing business contacts between the leaders of agribusiness, improvement their work and dialogue with the government. UCAB actively supports Ukrainian producers in establishing and maintaining international business relations. The Association consists of the largest producers and processors of agricultural products in Ukraine.