Onion prices in Poland have not reacted with growth

After the outbreak of war in Ukraine, prices of basic vegetables started to strengthen. The Polish market has seen increased demand from importers from Ukraine. The prices of vegetables that are part of the basic Ukrainian or Belarusian borsch set - white cabbage, carrots and beetroot - went up. But there is one exception - onions, which wholesale prices in Poland refuse to rise.

And even instead of rising, they have recently seen downward corrections. Both on the fresh market and when it comes to peeled onions. The latter is currently bought at 1.20-1.50 PLN per kilo, depending on the region of the country and whether in store or ex-ramp). Earlier it was 1.50-1.75 PLN/kg.

Bagged onions on the wholesale fresh vegetable market have fallen by an average of 9.5 per cent in March. Their prices in the large wholesalers are now mostly 0.80-1.10 PLN/kg. The chart above shows that the average price is again below the 2019/2020 season ceiling. Importantly, this price situation persists despite the fact that onions are also subject to increased demand from Ukraine, albeit to a lesser extent than cabbage or beet,.

This could mean that onion stocks in Poland are still high. In addition, we know that onions are still plentiful throughout Europe, led by the Netherlands, where prices have been falling recently. We also know that Poland will still receive a lot of peeled onions from Holland this season, although their attractiveness in terms of price has fallen somewhat due to the weak zloty.