Rhubarb prices in Poland - there's a lot going on
This year the course of the new season for early vegetables is marked by the stigma of cool weather on the one hand and drastically altered cost realities on the other. Rhubarb may not be a classic novelty, but the current early phase of the rhubarb season can certainly be called a "novelty".
It has many of the characteristics of the market for very early vegetables - a limited supply at the beginning, which then starts to increase. However, this increase is strongly correlated with weather conditions, which translates into price levels. At this stage the rhubarb market can also be called "immature", as limited quantities are only supplied to the fresh market and the real season with large volumes and buying for processing has still to wait.
So how has the rhubarb campaign been in recent days? There has certainly been a lot going on, including in terms of prices. This shows the dynamic growth of rhubarb supply in the Polish small wholesale market under conditions of still limited demand. Prices at buyers (for the fresh market) have fallen to 2.50 PLN/kg, whereas the season started at the end of April at 5.00 PLN/kg. This is a cut by half.
A similar trend can be seen on local exchanges in the small wholesale trade. At Zjazdowa in Łódź this week prices have fallen by a third to 3.00-5.00 PLN per kilo, at Bronisze by 30% to 3.50-4.50 PLN per kilo, and in Kalisz prices have stabilised in recent days and have oscillated at 4.00-5.00 PLN per kilo since the end of April.
Such price drops are still within the broadly defined "norm" for this phase of the rhubarb season. Something similar was observed a year ago, but then prices, although also falling dynamically, were slightly higher than now - depending on the exchange it was from 4.50 to 7.00 PLN/kg. When it comes to buying, prices both a year ago and in several previous seasons were usually at 2.00-2.50 PLN/kg, i.e. even slightly cheaper on average than now. However, taking into account the above mentioned increase in costs, we should expect noticeably higher prices - we will see what purchasers' offers will be when processing starts.