Strawberry prices are down again on the Polish market

And once again we had a collapse in dessert strawberry prices at the end of the working week in Poland. And if it wasn't for the fact that the weather was cold and rainy on Saturday, this price plunge would probably have been even bigger. "Thanks" to the weather, however, the decline has stopped, and wholesale dessert strawberry quotations are entering the new week at a slightly higher ceiling than at the weekend. This can be seen in our chart below.

This is because it is currently PLN 5.00-9.00/kg. This is 22 per cent less than on Friday, but slightly more (+22 per cent) higher than on Saturday. However, as you can see from the attached graph, this improvement has not fundamentally changed the negative picture of the dessert strawberry market. It is still cheap - significantly cheaper than in the same period last year (when the average was 10.50 PLN/kg and two years ago, when the average was 10.00 PLN/kg). Will this continued pressure on dessert strawberry prices translate into a situation where fruit is purchased for processing?

Such purchase has just started. The first purchase prices of strawberries without stalks are at 4.00 PLN/kg and those with stalks at 2.50 PLN/kg. They are consistent with the information that circulated on the market last week. Let us add that this year's season starts relatively early taking into account the weather (it is a different matter how the actual delivery of fruit will be).

A year ago buying commenced only in the first week of June with prices at an average level of 3.25 PLN/kg for unstalked strawberries and 1.85 PLN/kg for stalked fruit. This means that prices are cheaper than now, but then at the start of the season they were clearly underestimated and industrial strawberries became more expensive in June. At the end of June 2021, the average purchase price of unstalked strawberries was at the level of 4.15 PLN/kg and 2.70 PLN/kg without stalk.