Poland, brief agricultural news week 6, 2020

The Polish Group of Retailers - a chance for Polish retailers?

The Polish Group of Retailers (PGD-Polska Grupa Detalistów) will soon bring together four Polish retail chains. For now, the company does not conduct talks with other entities, but emphasizes being open to cooperation with all Polish companies which have their own warehouses. A lot of Polish producers report to the group's management willingness to have their products on store shelves.
The PGD is a new entity on the Polish FMCG market, which since 2019 brings together national commercial networks cooperating with each other in the optimization of purchasing processes. Joint activities within the PGD create new negotiation areas between representatives of the group and external contractors and increase the level of financial and time savings of member enterprises. The new company is to be a chance for new, better tomorrow of the Polish entities operating on the FMCG market. The PGD is based on a company called ADM Handel. In September 2019, a new entity was officially registered with headquarters in Warsaw. The company's capital is PLN 100,000. Currently, two entities, Twoj Market and API Market, are waiting for the consent of UOKiK (the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection) regarding joining the PGD Group.

Source: dlahandlu.pl

Poland’s biggest companies try to reduce impact on environment

According to a report by DNB Bank Polska and PwC, 45% of large Polish companies believe that implementing environmental initiatives can bring measurable financial benefits to the company. The other respondents recognized image benefits but on the short term, that costs outweigh the benefits. The research shows that the positive impact of environmental initiatives on the company’s financial results is not automatic, as it requires appropriate planning of activities and proper management of the enterprise.

The report stated that 67% of Poland’s largest companies have implemented initiatives to reduce their impact on the environment, and 14,5% is planning on it. About 76% of the companies is separating garbage, 73% uses energy-saving light bulbs and almost half of the companies conduct educational campaigns for employees.

Source: agropolska

Pizza is a new Polish national dish

Poland is one of the countries where the Italian dish made a spectacular success, as 60% of Poles buy pizza. And nothing indicates that this will change…
On Sunday, 9th of February, it is Pizza Day, which should be particularly celebrated in Poland. Poles are one of the largest pizza enthusiasts in the world. While Polish cuisine has many supporters, Poles prefer reaching out from other countries, and most often from Italy, when eating out.

In most of European countries burgers are the first choice, followed by Asian and local dishes, however in Poland, as in Sweden and Italy, pizza is the most frequently chosen dish, as the report "Poland on a Plate" shows.

In 2019, 6 out of 10 Polish households bought pizza, which gives it a 58 percent share of the market. These statistics relate to pizza with home delivery and pizza bought in the store: both frozen and chilled.

Although going to restaurants has never been the Polish tradition, however, eating out is becoming more and more popular in Poland – as we have already reported. According to the researcher GfK Polonia, in the last two decades there has been a real explosion in the gastronomic offer in Poland. So despite the fact that presently the Poles love pizza, there is still space to encourage them to Dutch specialties like stroopwafel, kroket, poffertjes, bitterballen or even 'Hollandse Nieuwe' herring.

Source: rp.pl

The prices of food and drink in Poland increase the fastest in Europe

According to the latest Eurostat data last year prices in Poland in many categories increased most strongly as compared to the entire European Union. Poland’s record holder in rising prices is food and drink sector.

The ranking prepared by DGP shows that in Poland the prices of products from the "food and non-alcoholic beverages" category went up 6.7 percent. In this respect, Poland was ahead of Bulgaria (6.5 percent) and Hungary (5.7 percent). For example, in 2019 potato prices increased by about 51 percent, while the average EU growth was 6.3 percent.

The data from DGP also shows that Poland was among the six countries in which inflation is clearly higher compared to other members of the EU. In the case of Poland, the index amounted to 3 percent last year (inflation calculated according to one methodology for all EU countries). The Czech Republic, Slovakia and Bulgaria recorded a level of 3.1-3.2 percent. Clearly higher, amounting to 4-4.1 percent inflation is only in Hungary and Romania.

More expensive electricity, rising employee salaries, new regulations and taxes, and finally climate change and animal disease epidemics might contribute to further price increases in the food sector.

There is a high probability that inflation will remain high. This means that some economists' estimates of falling prices in the second half of the year seem not to be correct. In the opinion of specialists, this year it is inevitable to raise such products as e.g. drinks (sugar tax) or pork (ASF), as well as food requiring energy-intensive production. So, all kinds of baked goods and dairy products will go up.

Source: Dziennik Gazeta Prawna (DGP), wiadomoscihandlowe.pl