Czechs flock to Poland for shopping: cheaper petrol, LPG, vegetables and sausages

The Polish market in the border town of Zabełków was packed with Czech shoppers on Saturday — people come here not just for cheap produce, but for better fuel prices too. The gap is especially noticeable when it comes to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG): according to shoppers, a litre in Poland costs around 17.20 CZK, while in Ostrava it now runs to 22.30 CZK.

Pavel Moučka, a resident of Ostrava, says he fills up on both petrol and LPG in Poland. He recalls that before the recent hike in regulated prices in Czechia, a litre of LPG cost about 18 crowns — but after the government introduced a price cap on petrol and diesel, automotive gas got noticeably more expensive. He noticed the same gap with regular petrol: in Czechia it costs around 43.41 CZK per litre, while in Poland that day it was selling for 40.67 CZK.

The couple combined their fuel run with a trip to the market in Zabełków, picking up cucumbers for pickling, dill, horseradish, tomatoes, peppers, new potatoes and other fruit and veg. "The prices are great, and everything tastes wonderful," Moučka's wife said.

According to shoppers at the market on Saturday, Polish vendors were offering pickled cucumbers for around 360 CZK per 10 kilograms, new potatoes at 60 CZK for 5 kilograms, butter at 25 CZK, Gouda cheese at 129 CZK per kilogram, and peppers at 175 CZK for 5 kilograms.

Toilet paper and canned fish are also flying off the shelves. Miroslav Janeček, who travelled to the market from nearby Bohumín, bought a tin of tuna for 35 crowns and called it a great deal. He noted that the range of fish products in Poland is far wider than in Czechia — thanks to the country's access to the sea. He also pointed out good deals on household goods: 50 rolls of toilet paper cost him just 200 crowns.

Dagmar Bogačová, a pensioner from Ostrava, admits she's recently cut back on buying meat in Poland — in Czechia, she says, it's cheaper across the board except for beef. But she still regularly buys local sausages and cold cuts, praising their flavour. Her husband, meanwhile, heads to Poland for cigarettes.

Other shoppers said they don't even bother tallying up the exact savings — what draws them to the market is mainly the quality and taste of the local produce: barrel-pickled tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, cherries, oyster mushrooms and cucumbers. "We come here not just for the prices, but because we genuinely love the taste of their fruit and vegetables," the women explained.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz