This year grapes are expected to become available one or two weeks earlier than last year. Greenhouse grapes and grapes cultivated outdoors will get ripe earlier owing to the hot and dry weather. In calendar terms, this means that the first greenhouse grapes can go on sale in the middle of July if the hot weather persists, IPN reports, quoting East-Fruit.

Regularly, the first lots of products on the domestic market are sold at the highest price. Last year, the wholesale prices of greenhouse table grapes during the first month of the selling season were 50-70 lei/kg (2.67-3.74 US$/kg). Later, after a narrow circle of consumers who like early grapes is satisfied, the prices on the home market decrease suddenly. The other quantity, of about half to one third of the greenhouse grapes harvest, is usually exported to Poland at a price that is by 25-40% lower than the starting price.

In 2022, the cultivators hope to get a starting price at least equal to last year’s price. On the wholesale market, the prices are higher for products of the first crop and, “if the ordinary cucumbers and tomatoes at the end of the first summer month are sold to end users for 25-50 lei/kg, we should not be surprised if the price of the freshest table grapes coming directly from a local producer will rise to 70-80 lei/kg (3.65-4.0 US$/kg).”