Strawberry grower: Peak early strawberry price of €25 a kilo finding customers
Strawberry season is arriving in Estonia and while the short supply so far this year will make for particularly high prices early on, the public will still pay them, one grower said.
As of Tuesday, by which time the first fruits of the year, grown in greenhouses, had started arriving at the markets, the price of strawberries stood at €25 per kilogram.
For comparison, in July last year, after a weather-disrupted crop, prices of just under €17 a kilogram were considered high in Tallinn.
In early June 2024, meanwhile, a price of €12-€14 per kilo was commonplace.
Despite this, people are paying this much, said Janika Lindsalu, who owns the Marimarta strawberry farm in Jõgeva County.
"They simply buy them. They see that strawberries are on sale today and immediately take two boxes. People have no problem spending €50," she told "Ringvaade".
"Ordinary people are buying them because they want strawberries. It's nice, after all. /.../ Strawberries imported from abroad are not the same. Food grown close to you is the most suitable for your body and organism," Lindsalu went on.
The reason for the high prices comes down to the old phenomenon of demand and supply, with the poor spring weather a major factor in the shortage.
"The price of strawberries is so high right now because there are so few of them. There really aren't many alternatives on the market. If you want them cheaper, then you can buy cheaper ones," Lindsalu remarked.
"Some more frost-sensitive varieties were probably damaged, recover more slowly, and that takes time," she added. At the same time, the dry period and cold nights also mean that strawberries cannot absorb the nutrients they need from the soil. "The temperature at night also needs to be higher. Right now the plants in the fields are starving. But with warmer nights, the situation is already improving."
While the first crops are greenhouse-grown, outdoor strawberries are expected to be ripe around mid-summer – over a month from now. Whether this will be a better crop remains to be seen, Lindsalu added. "I can't predict the harvest. If I could predict it, I'd make a living from fortune-telling," she quipped.
One thing is certain: a €25-per-kilo price throughout the whole summer will not be sustainable, Lindsalu noted, meaning lower prices can be expected later on in summer.
The most recent years have seen poor strawberry harvests in Estonia and while imported fruit from countries such as Poland can plug the gap, often at lower prices than locally grown produce, foreign strawberries being fraudulently passed off as Estonian ones has not been unheard of.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Neit-Eerik Nestor
