Do young celery plants wilt?

A year ago, we had a significantly delayed start to the season of young trimmed celery trading. It was also taking place at a high price level (according to our editorial monitoring on fresh-market.pl, the average price was 5.50 PLN/kg (1.29 EUR/kg) on July 25, 2023). This year, we have an early start to the campaign, which is not surprising as the entire market for domestic vegetables started a new season ahead of the typical calendar this year (not to mention last year's significantly delayed start).

In more typical conditions, such as in 2022, the season for young trimmed celery started around July 21 with a significantly lower price than last year (we recorded it in our monitoring at an average of 3.50 PLN/kg (0.82 EUR/kg)).

This year was not as expensive as last year, but it was more expensive than two years ago. The first listings of trimmed celery offered in the Polish wholesale market were at the level of 4.00-6.00 PLN/kg (0.94-1.41 EUR/kg), giving an average of 5.00 PLN/kg (1.17 EUR/kg). Currently, it is 5% cheaper, as prices are most often in the range of 4.00-5.50 PLN/kg (0.94-1.29 EUR/kg).

It seems that the earlier start of the season has indeed brought an earlier beginning of the seasonal price decline trend, typical for the initial phase of the campaign when supply grows fairly quickly. However, for now at least, this increase in supply may vary due to unfavorable weather conditions - they somewhat hinder harvesting, but also cause greater pressure from fungal diseases and pests (high temperatures and humidity). Last year, the average price of these celeries in large wholesale dropped by 36%. If a similar dynamic occurs this season, we could have a price around 3.20 PLN/kg (0.75 EUR/kg) at the beginning of August.