Will there be plenty of sour cherries in Poland?
There is still some time left until the start of the cherry harvest campaign in Poland, especially as this season will not be a particularly early one. However, there is already a discussion among producers about what the harvest will be like and how it may translate into prices for this fruit. This is particularly the case at purchasing centres for raw material for processing.
Many producers are of the opinion that the cherry harvest this year will be smaller than expected only a few weeks ago, when the view of the trees promised an abundance of fruit. But there has been a lot of rainfall in many orchards recently. Not all of them, of course, and there are still some orchards where the yield is expected to be high. Nevertheless, the proportion of orchards with high rainfall is significant. The sour cherry harvest is unlikely to be as poor as, say, 2019 (152 000 tonnes) or the slightly better 2020 season (153 000 tonnes), but there are indications that it will be no better than last year's (167 000 tonnes).
How did these harvest levels relate to cherry purchase prices? They were exceptionally high in 2019. For cherries for freezing, the season started with an average price of 2.00 PLN/kg and the maximum average price level was 3.35 PLN/kg (cherries for pressing started with an average of 1.65 PLN/kg and this was also the maximum for this indicator). In 2020, this was, respectively, PLN 1.70/kg and PLN 1.90/kg for cherries for freezing and PLN 0.70/kg and PLN 1.30/kg for cherries for pressing.
In 2021, with a higher harvest, purchase prices for sour cherries for freezing started from an average of 1.60 PLN/kg and reached a maximum of 1.70 PLN/kg. Sourcing prices for sour cherries for freezing started last season at an average level of 1.00 PLN/kg and were subsequently only lower. If, therefore, opinions are confirmed that this year's harvest will not be higher than last year's, we should expect the purchase prices of sour cherries for freezing at the start of the campaign to be at least at 1.60 PLN/kg, and possibly higher, as demand for fruit should be good. Sour cherry prices for pressing could start from the level of 0.80-0.90 PLN/kg, which prevailed last year.