Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
Prices of Polish potatoes down due to low demand and competition with imports
Prices of Polish potatoes have been rapidly going down, according to Fruit-Inform, and have fallen by about 20% since the beginning of this week due to several reasons.
In the first instance, prices are under the pressure of rather abundant supply of potatoes under conditions of moderate sales rates. As a result, growers reduce prices to accelerate their sales. However, such a policy is still unsuccessful.
In addition, prices of domestic potatoes are under the pressure of rather high competition with imported produce mainly of Romanian origin.
Under those market conditions, Polish farmers offer their potatoes at 0.05-0.08 euro/kg. As a result, prices are averagely 17-20% lower year-on-year. However, the majority of the market participants expect the situation to change in the nearest time. Such expectations are based on bad weather conditions in the country: abundant rainfall in many regions of Poland has led to stoppage of potato harvesting campaign. In addition, quality of potatoes has suffered from excess moisture; therefore, the supply of high-quality produce may sharply go down.