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Poland Agribusiness Report Q3 2009Published by: Business Monitor International Published: Jul. 10, 2009 - 66 Pages Table of Contents
AbstractThis report analyses supply and demand in Poland's changing dairy, grain, rice, sugar and livestocksectors. It considers recent developments and looks at how production levels and consumption are likelyto play out to the end of the forecast period in 2013.Poland is one of the EU's most important agricultural product providers. It is a significant producer ofwheat, sugar beet, pork, poultry and milk, and, although only touched upon by this report, it is one of theleading EU suppliers of rye, triticale, oats, rape, potatoes, carrots, onions, apples and cherries. It isgenerally a net exporter of meat and dairy products. About 77% of the agricultural land is arable, 2% iscovered by orchards and about 20% is permanent pasture. Agri-food exports have increased considerably in recent years, in 2008 the value of foreign sales reachedEUR11.3bn, up 12.1% compared to the year before (Ministry of Agriculture). Most of the exports, worthEUR8.5bn, went to the EU-27, Germany being the biggest market. The value of imported agri-foodproducts in 2008 was EUR9.8bn, up 21.7% on 2007. Since joining the EU Poland's agriculture industry has been, and is still being, forced into significantchange in order to be competitive. In an effort to encourage consolidation of the fragmented farmingsystem; to help bring farms and processing units up to EU production, health and safety standards, and tohelp give impetus to the food industry, the EU, in conjunction with the national government, has handedover billions of euros in subsidies and other types of financial support. Additional support is provided bythe World Bank. Slowly this seems to be working and despite inevitable fluctuations in market conditions for certainproducts (the pig industry has suffered in the recent EU pig crisis), farms are generally becoming moreproductive, farmers are generally becoming richer and the food industry is developing well. All this has helped expand the larger Polish economy, which in recent years has seen a significantimprovement in GDP and consumer spending power (although the recession is now taking a toll - in May2009 the IMF approved a one year US$20.58bn arrangement for Poland under the Flexible Credit Line). The westernisation of consumer food preferences is providing further opportunities for agriculturalproducers and processors and the winners will be those who can adapt best. Poland's encouragement offoreign investment in the food industry is helping to meet shifting consumer demands and drive theindustry forward. Significant opportunities still remain in some sectors such as organic production, which could particularlysuit many of Poland's small farms. Conversely, a greater acceptance of genetically modified (GM)organisms could help crop and livestock producers. In response to the EU Renewable Energy Directive which stipulates that by 2020 at least 10% of fuelused in transport will be from biofuel or electric power, there is some excitement about the possiblebenefits of domestic biofuel production for crop and sugar beet growers. However, it remains to be seenhow this plays out. According to a Reuters report Poland is the fourth biggest EU producer of bio-ethanol,though a long way behind France, Germany and Spain. The current economic downturn is of course a threat to Poland's agricultural sector, as it is to most othersaround the world. Get Full Details About This Report >> |
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