Demand for "old" cabbage is falling in Poland
May brought a clear fall in demand for white cabbage from the 2021 harvest in Poland. Until the end of April there was an increase in the price of this vegetable at the large wholesaler, but then this trend was slowed down (and the extended holiday weekend in May also "helped"), and then there was a clear decline in the price quotations of white cabbage at the large wholesaler, as can be seen in our chart.
In our editorial quotations from fresh-market.pl, we read that white cabbage is currently most often offered at 1.50-2.00 PLN/kg and this is almost 15 percent less than in the peak at the end of April and the beginning of May.
The chart also shows that the current average price remains markedly higher than in previous seasons, with the exception of that of May 2019, when white cabbage broke historical price records. However, should the price falls continue in the following weeks, the same thing that we saw with Chinese cabbage could happen at the end of the season - current prices will drop below those of a year ago. And a further fall in white cabbage prices is not out of the question, because demand is weak.
Indeed, demand for domestic early white cabbage is also weak. The price of early white cabbage also fell sharply at the wholesale level, but already in the second week of May. The drop has been such that the average price of young cabbage on the large wholesale market is already lower than a year ago, as can be seen in the second chart.
Currently, the prices of this vegetable in wholesale trade are at the level of 2.50-3.50 PLN/unit. Producers complain above all about the "spoiling" of the market by imported cabbage (currently mainly from Macedonia). And indeed, many retail chains have been holding back from buying domestic young cabbage for a long time, because they had stocks of imported cabbage. Even at bazaars and vegetable stores, imported cabbage was still often offered despite the availability of domestic cabbage, and this was due to the price difference. Now that the prices of the domestic offer have come down, its competitiveness will improve.