Prices of celery are below last year's level.

The prices of celery in the Polish wholesale market have fallen below the level from the same period last year. It can be said: again, because this is not the first time this month. Actually, as seen on our graph below, this lower year-on-year price was more of a norm than an exception.

Currently, the selling prices of washed and bagged celery in the Polish wholesale market are most often in the range of 3.00-3.50 PLN/kg (0.70-0.82 EUR/kg), with an average of 3.25 PLN/kg (0.76 EUR/kg). This is 7 percent below the level from the same period last year. At that time, the average price of these vegetables reached 3.25 PLN/kg (0.76 EUR/kg) only by the end of the first week of September.

The current decrease in celery prices below last year's level is particularly concerning in light of the GUS data indicating a significant expected drop in the harvest of these vegetables year on year. In fact, the current harvest is expected to be slightly worse than the poor harvest of 2021 and much worse than that of 2022.

source: own elaboration based on GUS data.

In other words, there will be a shortage of celery this season, and one would expect their prices to be correspondingly higher. However, the 2021/2022 season has shown that even with low harvests, prices do not necessarily have to be good (as seen in our first graph). It will be crucial how much celery will be imported to Poland in the season from abroad. A large import (especially of cheap goods, if the harvest in countries like the Netherlands is good) will flood any potential supply gap in the domestic market and suppress prices, as was the case three years ago.