What about the high prices of white cabbage?

Since the beginning of July this year, we have observed an increase in prices of young white cabbage on the wholesale fresh vegetable market. Over the course of three weeks, this trend led to a sales price increase of this cabbage in large wholesale by two-thirds. However, it did not last until the end of July, not to mention extending its activity into August.

In the last week of last month, the supply of white cabbage on the Polish wholesale market slightly improved. The price increase also weakened the interest of buyers. As a result, prices in large wholesale dropped on average by 13 percent. Thus, this year's prices did not reach last year's record levels.

How does the situation look now on the wholesale market for white cabbage in Poland? As seen on our chart, in the large wholesale segment for the fresh market, August brought, after a temporary decline to the level of 1.15 PLN/kg (0.27 EUR/kg) on average (1.00-1.30 PLN/kg) (0.23-0.30 EUR/kg), an upward correction. Currently, sales prices are mostly in the range of 1.10-1.50 PLN/kg (0.26-0.35 EUR/kg). It is still not at the same level as last year, but it is 30 percent higher than the average of the past five years.

It is unknown whether there will be a continuation of this correction. However, it seems that these higher prices may persist for some time because there is not much white cabbage on the domestic market, and processors are becoming more interested, so an increasing portion of the product will be diverted from the fresh market.

Of course, the end of summer and autumn will bring lower cabbage prices, as it is a seasonal phenomenon. However, it is worth noting that this year's cabbage harvest (of all varieties) is estimated by GUS at only 593 thousand tons, which is historically the worst result, much worse than volumes of 0.9-1.0 million tons from four or more years ago. This suggests that any autumn price drops will not be significant, and we can expect a quick stabilization at a relatively high level (similar to what happened last year).

source: own elaboration based on GUS data.