Like the insolence of resellers - this is how it might seem to some price of cherries on markets in Serbia. As soon as a few fruits and vegetables are put in the bag and handed over for measurement, this summer's buyer already knows that it will not go below 3.000 dinars, and it will all be eaten within a day. Thus, many families will avoid the markets in a wide circle during the summer days.
Has fruit become a luxury?
Although she earns about 100.000 dinars a month, Tamara Andrić says that, with two children and a husband who receives a slightly lower salary, she will avoid fruit stalls this summer. She says that she regretfully remembers the time when, as a child, she ate kilos and kilos of fruit in the summer, and her family was not wealthy. Fruit was simply not considered a luxury then, as it is today.
"It makes me sad that my children don't eat fruit, but if I buy them cherries or strawberries, I don't have money for meat," she says. "I'm especially sorry that this fruit goes by so quickly, and we don't even try it. But, what can we do, I bought them 200-300 grams each, until they know what it is, and I take them bananas and apples, at least it's not that expensive, so I can buy more often and in larger quantities."
Minimum shopping basket
Most people in Serbia have even less money than Tamara's family. The minimum consumer basket this year amounts to 55.000 dinars, and it should feed the average family of three in the country - parents and one child - on a monthly basis.
Those who can really spend only this amount on food and all other needs for 30 days for the household will certainly not buy cherries. Because, the data shows that they for the whole month for food and juices allocate a total of just over 25.000 dinars.
This corresponds to the medial earnings in Serbia, which amounts to 81.793 dinars. Unlike the average salary, which is about 25 percent higher, the median salary is a much more realistic indicator of the real finances of people in Serbia, because it shows the amount that half of the employees have earned.
So it turns out that, although statistics show that people in the country receive an average of around 100.000 dinars, the largest number receive just over 80.000 dinars for the whole month.
If they bought only a kilogram of cherries every other day, it would cost them as much as a quarter of their salary.
Why is fruit expensive?
However, although many fruit sellers often make a lot of money, especially if they sell products in well-ranked markets in the center of big cities, they probably won't make much money from cherries this year.
The reason for such steep prices is unfavorable weather conditions during winter and spring. Because, first in February, the fruit blossomed unusually early due to high temperatures. The warm weather in January and February influenced the faster development of generative buds, experts explained, which has been repeated for the last 10 or 12 years. That's how the cherries bloomed ahead of schedule.
In March, frost followed and caused significant damage, especially to those fruit species that were in full bloom or overbloom, such as cherries.
Apricots were almost 100 percent destroyed, as well as cherries and apples, and plums and pears about 80 percent, so this summer those who want to enjoy the fruit will have to pay dearly for it.
