The 2024 fresh berry season in Poland faced major challenges from bad weather, labor shortages, and dynamic market conditions. A severe late April frost caused significant crop damage, especially to black current, strawberry, sour cherries, and raspberries, and which in turn reduced harvest volumes.
The frost coincided with the early start of the season (almost two weeks earlier than usual due to mild winter), which made things more difficult because many crops were blossoming. Concurrently, a shortage of seasonal labor forced farmers to adopt alternative picking methods to manage the disruption and mitigate losses.
The market was quite unstable, with prices changing swiftly and unfavorable exchange rates. Furthermore, the combination of high fresh produce demand and low initial stock levels put producers under even greater strain.
Based on the aforementioned factors, we anticipate considerable drops in the yields of strawberries, red currants, black currants, and sour cherries. The raspberry season has just finished with lower harvested volumes as previous season.