What about onion prices on the Polish market?
Spring this year has brought quite a few changes in the prices of vegetables in the Polish large wholesale market. Not all of these changes are increases, because some vegetables are doing poorly and demand for them remains limited. What about onions and their prices? In short, it is not the best, as there is still no clear upward trend in this segment of the vegetable market.
Prices of bagged onions have remained stable at the wholesale level since mid-March with an average selling price of 0.95 PLN per kilo. Only recently this average has marginally (by 5.3 per cent) strengthened and currently prices of such onions are mostly 0.90-1.10 PLN/kg, depending on the region of the country and the size.
As you can see on the graph above, it is not a low level, but one should remember about the increase of production, storage and logistics costs, which should have a significant enough impact on the producer's price level. The increase should also be supported by the weather. It is cold and rainy, which means a delay in early onion production, and there is not much to show for it. Another factor - the war in Ukraine, which has affected higher prices for cabbages and beetroot, and even potatoes, has so far not affected onions. Yet Ukrainian experts indicate that the country will have a deficit of domestic onions. Let us also remember that we have several million additional consumers in our market, so domestic demand should be strengthening.
Demand is strengthening, but not enough to translate into higher onion prices. In addition, export demand for our onions is very weak. There are not many takers in Europe, and competition is strong. After all, prices would probably already have risen more significantly, but Poland has been receiving a steady and abundant flow of poor-quality but cheap Dutch onions for a long time. It goes for processing, not for the fresh market, but this means that equivalent quantities of domestic raw material are being pushed onto our internal market, including partly onto the fresh market, thus lowering the wholesale price level.