Less Bang for Your Buck These Days at Local Markets

Anybody who has visited Croatia’s popular farmers markets recently will have seen that their precious kuna does not go as far as it once did. According to a report from Nova TV’s Dnevnik, prices of a number of fruits and veges have doubled in the space of just 12 months…

A wet and rainy period recently has had an adverse affect of the agricultural industry, causing hikes in prices of fruit and vegetables at the local farmers markets. The one produce which has sky-rocketed the most in the last 12 months has been the lemon, where the price per kilo can be as high as 35 kuna (4.80 euros), compared with 17 kuna (2.20 euros) in September last year. Plums are another to jump in price throughout the country, doubling also from September last year when they were selling for around 5 kuna (0.80 euro) a kilo. Experts say that the large amount of rain, and also the high humidity in the air, is to blame for a reduced supply and a rise in prices.

Tomatoes have also suffered, with the average kilo price rising around 0.50 euro across the country. Whilst most produce has risen, the price of apples, mandarins and potatoes have stayed at a similar level, or even dropped in some cases. Nevertheless, with wages not moving at all in the last year, locals are finding they are walking away from the fruit and vege markets a lot lighter than this time last year for spending the same amount.