Sour cherry purchasing is gaining momentum on the Polish market

Offers for the purchase of sour cherries have been around for some time, but until now the purchase of these fruit has been on a very limited scale in Poland. We recently wrote on fresh-market.pl  that the fruit on the trees is not well coloured and fruit growers are still holding back from full-scale harvesting.

Now, however, the cherry campaign is finally picking up speed. Some processing plants are already starting this Saturday, others are still waiting until next week, but over the next few days, the flow of cherries will be flowing rapidly to processors. And how are the purchase prices of these fruits currently shaping up?

As we wrote, they are slightly better than the pessimistic forecasts. However, this does not mean that fruit growers feel fully satisfied. They say that with the current level of costs, current prices should still be slightly higher. Right now it is PLN 2.20 - PLN 2.50/kg for cherries for freezing and PLN 2.30 - PLN 2.50/kg for those for compote. PW cherries are priced at PLN 1.00-1.20/kg.

For cherries for freezing, this is up 42 per cent on last year and 27 per cent more expensive than two years ago. If it weren't for inflation and rising costs, it wouldn't be bad. It is also unlikely that there will be a repeat of the 2019 season, when prices reached PLN 3.50/kg at the end of the season, much less a repeat of 2017, when the average end-of-season price for cherries for freezing hit PLN 6.00/kg. But as we can see, the industry can withstand higher price levels.

It is worth adding here that, despite the annual complaints about cherry prices and many declarations about the grubbing up of cherry orchards, ARMA data shows an increase in the acreage under these fruits in recent years. Between 2020 and 2021, it was even by leaps and bounds - from 11,231 ha to 16,432 ha. In 2022, it is expected to be 16,803 ha.