Poland, brief agricultural news week 8, 2019
What happened in Poland last week? A brief overview of agricultural news.
Polish President meets farmers organisations
President Andrzej Duda inaugurated the first meeting of the Farmers' Agreement, a platform for cooperation in agriculture. The meeting was attended by representatives of 168 farming, food processing and food trade organisations. Agricultural Minister Jan Ardanowski, his deputies and a number of other government agency officials were also present. The Farmers' Agreement is hoped to be a platform for institutional dialogue on the problems in agriculture that will help interested groups to work out optimal solutions, and was established by Minister Ardanowski late 2018 in a reaction on the difficult situation Polish agriculture faced (ie. due to low prices, drought, weak position of farmers in the production chain). During the meeting it was stressed that agriculture has a central role in the Polish economy. The farmer is an important element of the food market, but being a part of the market economy, farmers should "organise unions, co-operatives and create producer groups" to confront domestic and foreign competition.
Cider lost the market battle with beer
Sales of cider dropped last year with 15% to 70 mln pln. The apple beverage had no chance comparing to beer, the sales of beer scored with an increase of +7% to 16,6 bln pln. It is probably the result of long and early spring and good weather in the summer. Also the EU football championships took place in 2018: team sport activities are natural allies of beer consumption in Poland.
This market in Poland began to develop in mid-2013 when company Ambra Group (leader of the cider market in Poland) entered the market with Cider Lubelskie. The industry had high hopes in the growing cider market with great potential in Poland, the country being the largest producer of apples in Europe. As beer companies have regional and quality beers, all kinds of innovations, flavored beers, non-alcohol beers, many Polish consumers don’t see strong differences between both beverages. They choose for a cheaper product which is beer as it has a lower excise tariff. The government is willing to lower or even exclude cider from excise tax in order to make cider a ‘national drink’, but this will has not been formalized.
Today it's level is only about 0.2 percent of the beer market.
Oshee Polska to take over Sonko
Oshee Polska sp. Z o.o, the leader of the functional beverages market in Poland, intends to acquire control over the company Sonko sp. z o.o. and its subsidiary Sonko GmbH. Sonko Sp. z o.o. is the owner of Sonko and Risana brands, which are leaders on the Polish market in the category of rice, groats, crispbreads and rice wafers, while the subsidiary Sonko GmbH - operates in the field of food distribution on the German market. Acquisition of Sonko is next step of Oshee in strengthening position on the market, at the end of 2018 the company gained financial investors: Innova Capital and UNO Capital Funds.
Developments in Animal Husbandry discussed at Ferma Exhibition
From February 15-17, the XIX International Fair CATTLE FARM together with XXII International Fair PIG & POULTRY FARM took place in Łódź These exhibitions are highly specialized trade fairs for cattle, pigs and poultry producers & breeders. The exhibition is also well respected platform for expert presentations and discussions on agricultural developments. An important topic during the conference program where the latest developments in the field of African Swine Fever and the importance of bio security measures. But also modern dairy farm management, prensented by Wagening University and Research was presented. This years edition attracted over 200 exhibitors (amongst them several from the Netherlands) and over 30.000 visitors.
New challenges for florists discussed at Gardenia in Poznań
From 21-23 February, the 13th edition of Gardenia exhibition took place. Polish clients show more and more interest in beautiful and professional floral arrangements, so the sector is developing fast and looks carefully to the leading trends in the world. This year modern arrangements made from ‘living coral’, color of the year according to Pantone were presented at the fair. As more and more flowers can be bought in retail chains, clients buy more flowers, and are getting used to have flowers in their homes, which is a good trend. At the same time Polish florists have to position themselves and educate their clients what they can expect extra compared to retail shop from a professional florist. The added value of the floral arrangement done by a florist is not to compare with a simple bunch of flowers bought at the supermarket.