Poland: low cabbage prices

White cabbage was the most popular vegetable in Poland for many years. Nowadays white cabbage is still important but tomatoes are the most consumed vegetables in the country. The Polish cabbage production is the largest in the EU, and – after Russia – in entire Europe. White cabbage is sold in heads or as very popular processed product – sour cabbage (this product is also exported in large quantities from Poland to Czech Republic and Slovakia). Red and savoy cabbages are by far less popular. Because of mentioned reasons, cabbage remains important vegetable crop for many growers.

The current season situation became very bad for them – cabbage prices are the lowest during last few years an everything shows that they will become even lower in coming months. Why? The answer is not easy because the last season cabbage crop in Poland was higher than in the past (1320 thousand MT in 2005 comparing to 1100 thousand MT in 2006 according to Central Statistical Office of Poland). Up to 90% of cabbage plantations in Poland have an acreage lower than 0,50 hectare, which results that production can be easily switched from one crop to another.

The cabbage acreage changes significantly from year to year because of the price situation – good prices in one year usually mean poor ones in the next year. On February 2 the minimum price for white cabbage at the Warsaw wholesale market was only 0,05 €/kg, the maximum price – 0,12 €/kg (0,10-0,16 €/kg for red cabbage, 0,21-0,31 €/kg for savoy cabbage and 0,31- 0,38 for sour cabbage).

Source: freshplaza.com