Higher supply of imported blueberries on the Polish market

2021-03-23 10:29

The supply of imported highbush blueberries is growing on the Polish market, including the wholesale trade. However, this growth is more dynamic in the retail trade. This is the result of the coronavirus pandemic that has heavily disturbed the fresh fruit and vegetable market. This is particularly true of imported products with a short shelf life. This includes blueberries.

The closure of the catering industry resulted in a large reduction in demand for these fruit. In Poland, too, this can be seen in the rate of increase in supply. In fact, the same happened a year ago, when the pandemic in Europe had only just begun. In "normal" years, imports were more intense in the second half of March, when the Spanish harvest campaign had already gathered pace.

And in Spain the campaign is continuing and the quantities of blueberries available are increasing. Their prices in week 10 fell, albeit slightly. The average producer price was at €5.99/kg, 0.3 per cent lower than a week earlier. This is cheaper than at the same point in the 2018/2019 season (€7.25/kg), but still slightly more expensive than a year ago (€5.88/kg). Prices would have fallen faster if the weather had been more conducive to production this year.

On the Polish wholesale market, instead of a reduction, we have even seen a strengthening of the price of blueberries imported from Spain, as these are already dominating our trade. This is also a result of the winter weather that persists in the country, even though we already have a calendar spring. The prices in the small wholesalers have increased this week by 10 percent to the level of PLN 10.00-12.00 per 250g package. This is an average level of 11.00 PLN, identical to last year.

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