The price of lettuce, which skyrocketed and in some cases reaches $100 each, will only begin to decline in mid-February, reported to The Observer Diego Romero, member of the Farmer Observatory of the Metropolitan Agrifood Unit (UAM).
As he explained, as usually happens, the increase in the price verified in recent days is the consequence of a significant drop in the supply of the product to the market.
That derived from the climatic difficulties, specifically those excesses of rain, which affected the farms where the so-called leaf vegetables are produced, a production that is mostly done in the field, not so much in protected spaces such as a greenhouse and for items such as tomato, bell pepper and others.
It rained too much and for several days in the initial section of the second fortnight of January and this determined that there was, in many cases, a direct loss of production. Many lettuces rotted and were left without any possibility of being harvested, conditioned and marketed.
What’s more, what could be harvested was smaller than adequate, given that to rescue the lettuces, the harvest was brought forward, to prevent them from being damaged and lost.
It also affected that during those days with rains and in the following ones, until it dried enough, planting was interrupted due to the muddy conditions in the fields.
All this generated a gradual decrease in supply of lettuce to the market and, consequently, a rise in price at wholesale and consumer level.
Romero also pointed out the need to take into account that during the first fortnight of January there was an intense tourist activity, especially in the east of the country, which increased the demand for lettuce, without changing the supply, which was determined that the price increased.
Sebastián Lima, a trader, commented that these days the price of each lettuce has a floor of around $70, but that in the case of high-quality products from greenhouses, the value is higher.
He added that “this high price is not an exclusive problem of lettuce, everything that is leaf production suffered with the rains, there is little and the price of spinach and chard is high, they are around $45 to $ 60 good ones”.
The photo that illustrates this article corresponds to a stall, this Tuesday, at the Estero Bellaco and Centenario fair.
The price of lettuce, as happens with the rest of the items in the fruit and vegetable basket, fluctuates based on supply and demand. Now each one is placed with that extreme value of $100, but last winter with lower demand and high supply the value was ruinous for the producer: two lettuces for $15.
Leonardo Carreno
You have to wait at least two weeks for the price of lettuce to drop.
When will the price drop?
“For the price of lettuce to begin to fall, you have to wait 15 or 20 days”, said Romero, taking into account that new plantations could already be carried out, in a product whose production cycle requires about 30 days to be completed in summer (and about 40 during winter).
consulted about alternatives to lettuce, Romero said that it is difficult for there to be a quick solution on that side, because in These are items that suffered the same adversities and, furthermore, because the consumer is not used to replacing lettuce with kale, spinach, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, mustard, mizuna or arugula.
He said these are interesting options, but they typically have a “stronger” flavor than lettuce and there isn’t often a full replacement of lettuce for arugula, for example.
Farmer Observatory Report
In the latest report from the Farmer Observatory, it was indicated that this Monday, January 31, at the UAM, the operation took place in an agile manner, with an improvement in the placement of merchandise and in the entry of buyers. This performance is associated with the beginning of a new month.
The values of pear, grape, carrot and zucchini fell.
There were increases in the reference prices of bell peppers, round and perita cherry tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini, beauregard/cuabé sweet potato, kabutiá squash, Swiss chard and strawberries.
wholesale prices
At the beginning of this week, at the wholesale level, lettuce presented extreme values of $450 to $700 per dozen, according to the Farm Observatory report.
