Italian cabbage - cheaper, but not cheap.

Supply of Italian cabbage at the beginning of the current season was growing quite slowly, and its prices were very high. The upward trend in supply gained momentum in the past few weeks as harvesting of later varieties began. During this time, wholesale prices of this cabbage in Poland decreased gradually. However, in the market for Italian cabbage, as we can observe in the wholesale trade of red cabbage, and to a large extent white cabbage, there is a supply gap compared to previous years. This is a result of poorer cabbage harvests overall this year. Consequently, cabbage prices, including Italian cabbage, despite the downward trend, remain higher than in corresponding periods in previous years. As for the prices of Italian cabbage offered in large wholesale, they are currently in the range of 2.40-3.00 PLN/kg (locally in small wholesale, this cabbage can still be priced at 6.00-8.00 PLN/kg!). This gives an average of 2.70 PLN/kg. This is about 23% less than at the end of September this year. At the same time, current prices are higher year-over-year by an average of 42%. Compared to the same period in 2022 (when the average price was 2.25 PLN/kg and was the highest for the period around mid-October in the previous five seasons), it is higher by one-fifth. What does this mean for the quotes of Italian cabbage in the coming weeks and months? Everything indicates that we will have a more expensive season than in previous years. Although it should be noted that the price curve for wholesale Italian cabbage can vary greatly. In the past 5 years, we had two seasons when in October the average price was already at the minimum level for the entire trading campaign (in 2023 it was 1.90 PLN/kg and in 2020 it was 1.40 PLN/kg). In two seasons, prices in October were still on a downward trend (in 2022 it was 2.25 PLN/kg with a minimum in December at 2.00 PLN/kg and in October 2019, when the average price was 2.20 PLN/kg, and the minimum in December was 1.65 PLN/kg). However, there was a season when prices were on an upward trend (in 2021 it was 1.00 PLN/kg at the beginning of October, 1.15 PLN/kg in the middle of the month, and we had an increase until January 2022 with prices at 2.75 PLN/kg).