What's going on with cauliflowers' prices in Poland?

The end of May is still quite early in the season for Polish cauliflowers, but it is already clear that the situation in this segment of the fresh vegetable market is not good for producers. Domestic cauliflowers have been heavily discounted since the start of the season and this despite the fact that the weather in May was not at all optimal for their vegetation.

This worrying trend was already visible last week and we wrote about it on fresh-market.pl. Over the past week the situation has not improved at all. The downward trend in wholesale cauliflower prices continued, although perhaps not as dynamically as in the first, earliest phase of the season, when between 9 and 18 May the average selling price at the large wholesaler fell by as much as 44 percent. Then, by the end of last working week, the price had fallen by a further 5 per cent. Consequently, these prices were at the level of 2.80-3.40 PLN/unit, depending on the quality and the region of the country.

Of course, it is a fact that the domestic cauliflower market is still immature. They are only going to retail and mostly to vegetable stalls and markets. Retail chains are still selling off their import stocks. The fall in wholesale prices has been faster than the descent of cauliflowers at retail, where consumers have not yet felt such discounts. But even so, the situation is clearly not good for producers - current prices are not only significantly lower than last year, as can be seen in our graph (-22.5 per cent). The graph shows that the current average is the lowest in four years.