Cucumbers are cheaper.

In the middle of this month, we experienced a significant shortage of cucumbers in the Polish market. This crisis was visible even in comparison to the entire season so far, during which the market struggled with shortages of these vegetables for the majority of the campaign, both in the greenhouse and open-field segments.

However, the second half of August brought some improvement in the cucumber supply, which was reflected in the wholesale prices of these vegetables. Over the last two weeks, prices have been decreasing, although this trend was briefly interrupted at the end of last week. In the current week, this downward trend has become active again. The cumulative decrease in the average price of greenhouse cucumbers in large wholesale amounted to 44 percent.

This is a significant drop, but the chart shows how high cucumber prices were falling from. It is also noticeable that they still remain exceptionally high. In large wholesale, the prices of greenhouse cucumbers are currently at the level of 4.00-5.00 PLN/kg (0.93-1.17 EUR/kg). This is one złoty more (+29 percent) than the highest price recorded on August 30 in the 2020 season.

Similar trends are observed in the open-field cucumber segment. Their wholesale prices, which were very high in the middle of the month, have significantly decreased. However, these cucumbers are still expensive because the supply improvement in recent weeks has been relative—there are more of them than a few days ago, but still not enough compared to normal seasons. The purchase prices of open-field cucumbers are currently 3.50-5.00 PLN/kg (0.82-1.17 EUR/kg) for pickles, 2.50-4.00 PLN/kg (0.58-0.93 EUR/kg) for gherkins, and 1.00-2.00 PLN/kg (0.23-0.47 EUR/kg) for salad cucumbers, depending on the region. In small wholesale, the prices of open-field cucumbers range from 4.50 to even 10.00 PLN/kg (1.05-2.34 EUR/kg).