The prices of cucumbers are still going up.

The prices of fresh cucumbers on the Polish market continue to rise. This applies to both greenhouse cucumbers and field cucumbers. It seems that the dramatic supply situation in the latter segment of the cucumber market is the main driver of the price increase trend.

The supply of field cucumbers has not been this bad in a long time. The weather has severely affected cucumber crops, resulting in very poor yields and low current supply of these vegetables. Consequently, this has led to high, even record-breaking prices.

Furthermore, based on the preliminary estimates published by the Central Statistical Office (GUS) last week, the entire current season will be characterized by low availability of field cucumbers. Comparing this estimate with production data from previous seasons, we can see that we are facing the worst harvest in years. The initial GUS estimate indicates a harvest of only 118,000 tons. It is worth noting that this data was collected until early July, and the situation did not improve afterwards, so subsequent estimates may be even lower.

source: own elaboration based on GUS data

In this situation, it is not surprising that the purchase prices of field cucumbers have reached 4.00-7.00 PLN/kg, which is approximately 0.93-1.63 EUR/kg for cucumbers intended for pickling and 4.50-7.00 PLN/kg (1.05-1.63 EUR/kg) for canning. The recent weeks have been particularly challenging for field cucumber cultivation, and during this time, there has been a further decrease in the supply of these vegetables.

As mentioned earlier, it's not only field cucumbers breaking price records. Wholesale prices of greenhouse cucumbers also continue to rise and set new records. This is clearly visible on our second chart. Currently, wholesale selling prices of greenhouse cucumbers are in the range of 5.50-7.00 PLN/kg, or about 1.28-1.63 EUR/kg. These are record prices not only compared to the previous five seasons. According to data from our fresh-market.pl price monitoring, it has not been this expensive at this stage of the season for at least the last fifteen years. There are currently no prospects for significant price reductions for cucumbers.