The Polish market is experiencing a dramatic fall in wholesale prices of greenhouse tomatoes this week, according to EastFruit. The average price of all kinds of tomatoes plummeted by 35-45% in just a few days.
This is remarkable, considering that the prices of tomatoes were at an all-time high for this season at the end of last week, following the pattern of the previous season. Back then, record high prices for gas and electricity caused a steep decline in the production of greenhouse vegetables in the EU countries, which led them to boost imports and pushed prices to unprecedented levels.
What triggered this sudden drop in the prices of greenhouse tomatoes? The reasons behind these trends are disputed among wholesalers.
One of the Polish traders pointed out that the prices of tomatoes crashed in Turkey, where the production increased under the influence of the record prices of the last season, but the demand for this product, seemingly, decreased. The same source informed EastFruit about instances of greenhouse tomatoes being shipped by Turkish producers for sale, i.e. without a set price.
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There are also reports of standard round greenhouse tomatoes being sold in Turkey at incredibly low prices for this season, starting from $0.50 US dollars per kg. This was apparently a clearance sale of the remaining product, but it indicates serious problems with the demand for Turkish greenhouse vegetables in this season.
Another factor that cannot be ignored is the sharp drop in the cost of energy sources in Europe in this season. The prices of natural gas in the EU are currently at a record low for this season, and the winter in Europe in this season is again mild and sunny. This helps to keep the costs of heating and lighting greenhouses at a reasonable level, and the domestic production of greenhouse vegetables is bouncing back.
It is no wonder that the wholesale markets in Poland and the supermarket chains now offer a wide range of greenhouse tomatoes from Spain, along with the local greenhouse product. Meanwhile, the supplies of tomatoes from Morocco, as traders say, are not as significant in this season as they were a year ago.
We also observe that the prices of tomatoes in Poland, which were the highest among the countries where we monitor, dropped below the prices in Ukraine and even below the prices of this product in Uzbekistan in a matter of days! This price reduction may have an impact on Ukraine, which imports most of its greenhouse vegetables in winter from Turkey.
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