Strawberry prices at origin have experienced a downward trend throughout the month of March, even though the campaign is significantly shorter than usual this year. In week 10, the price had already contracted by 9.5% over the previous week, going from €2.39/kg in week 9 to € 2.16/kg.
In week 11, prices fell by a considerable 15.2% to € 1.83/kg because the crops entered their full production; and in week 12 prices paid to strawberry producers at origin decreased by 18% and stood at €1.53/kg.
The data shared by the Observatory of Prices and Markets confirms what Freshuelva had already stated, that there's been a double-digit decrease in the volumes traded to date. "Usually, more than 40% of the total production expected in the campaign has been marketed by week 12 of the year." This year, despite the entry of the plants into full production, only nearly 33% of the volume had been marketed by mid-March; a difference that Freshuelva estimates will be hard to recover from in the rest of the season.
However, according to the Observatory, “the volumes marketed in weeks 11 and 12 are similar to the volumes marketed in the same weeks of last season.”
Meanwhile, raspberry prices fell from € 8.06/kg in week 10 to €7.12/kg in week 12, after having fallen by 8.8% in the last week over the previous week. The price in the fields has fallen, but it's still above the average price of the last campaigns. The volume of raspberries marketed so far in the current season is nearly 20% smaller than the volume marketed in the same period of the previous season.
Finally, in week 12, blueberry prices fell by 9.1% to € 6.43/kg. “This week, the price of blueberries decreased while the volume traded increased. By week 12, usually, nearly 15% of all the blueberry expected for the campaign has been marketed, but in this campaign, the volumes obtained are much lower than usual.