According to EastFruit analysts, since the beginning of 2024 onion prices in Poland have been on rise and were unusually high for this period of the year. Price were actually at all time record high levels for this time of the year.
Usually at this time, wholesale prices for onions in Poland range between 23 and 27 US cents per kg, but now the price level is exactly twice as high and prices have reached 50 US cents per kg. Moreover, now prices in dollar equivalent already exceed last year’s level by 4%, which is a very alarming signal. After all, last season was marked by a record level of onion prices.
In 2022/23 season a sharp increase in onion prices began in February. By March onion prices had already reached almost one dollar per kg in wholesale trade, and then, after some decline, they returned to these levels again at the end of May and remained high almost until the end of June 2023.
Will a similar scenario repeat this year, given that onion prices are already higher than a year ago? If we take into account the tense situation with onion supplies in the EU countries, problems with the quality and sizes of onions in Germany and Spain, then most market participants have no doubt that onion prices will still rise.
However, this season the situation in the markets of Ukraine and Central Asian countries is completely different. If a year earlier prices for onions in Ukraine were the highest in the region, now they are 33% lower than in Poland. Onion prices in Central Asian countries are 4-5 times lower than in Poland and stocks are record high, while a year ago these countries were actually importing onions.
Today, onions from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are already supplied to the markets of EU countries, including Poland, which helps keep prices under control. The situation is also radically different in Turkey, where onions now cost exactly half as much as in Poland today.
Therefore, in our opinion, one should not expect price records for onions in Poland in upcoming months, although the upward trend in prices may continue until mass supplies of new harvest onions from the southern countries of Europe and North Africa begin.
For more information: east-fruit.com