POLAND
The Polish economy has been on an upward trajectory in the past two decades, supported by increases in productivity in the agriculture sector. Poland’s growth in fruit exports has been driven by increased apple production from a stable area of around 180,000 hectares. Blackcurrants are another major export fruit and triticale is another major crop. New AG International reviews how Poland’s agriculture has changed in the past two decades as highlighted by the country’s agricultural census conducted in 2020 and the release of preliminary data in 2021.
The agricultural sector in Poland has enjoyed strong growth in the last two decades. The productivity gap versus the European Union (EU) closed from 70 percent in 2008 to 59 percent in 2011, according to a report by McKinsey & Company, ‘Poland 2025: Europe’s new growth engine’, published in 2015. In subsequent years, Poland has continued to grow its thriving fruit exports. However, as noted in the McKinsey report, average yields for principal crops, with the exception of sugar beets, are around 40 percent lower than comparable EU countries. Low productivity is primarily driven by fragmented holdings, stated the report. “The average farm size in Poland is approximately 10 hectares, compared with 50 hectares in France and Germany and 90 hectares in the United Kingdom,” noted McKinsey. As will be discussed, the average farm size has increased slightly (11.1 hectares) when looking at the 2020 agricultural census. In its conclusion, McKinsey stated Poland offers more advantages than any other country in terms of becoming Europe’s major food production and processing hub. “Poland ranks fourth in the EU in terms of arable land after France, Germany and Spain, and 200 million EU citizens live within 1,000 kilometres of Poland’s borders,” the report stated.
Land use and farm size Agricultural Census 2020 The total agricultural area is 14,637,000 hectares (ha), according to the 2020 agricultural census (preliminary results released March 2021). As noted in Table 1, this is 47 percent of Poland’s land area. There was a decrease of 200,000 ha in agricultural area from 2010 to 2020. The sown area increased by 340,000 ha to 10,707,000 ha in 2020, an increase of 3.6 percent. Cereals account for 70 percent of sown area, equating to 7,377,000 ha in 2020. Orchards decreased from 351,000 ha to 301,000 ha. The number of total farms in Poland is 1,317,000 according to the 2020 agricultural census. This is a decrease of approximately 190,000 from previous census 2010. The decline in the number of farms, coupled with small increase in agricultural area, resulted in increase of average agricultural area (AA) per farm from 9.8 ha in 2010 to 11.1 ha in 2020. The census highlighted the trend of fewer farms with up to 15 ha, and an increase in farms with agricultural area of 15 ha. “The structure of farms has marginally improved,” says the GUS when announcing preliminary results. The share of the smallest farms with up to five ha of agricultural land decreased from 54 percent in 2010 to 52.5 percent in 2020 (by 1.5 percentage points), while the share of farms with 15 ha and more of agricultural area simultaneously increased from 13
percent in 2010 to 15.8 percent in 2020 (by 2.8 percentage points). In terms of age profile of farmers, Poland has comparatively young farmers. From Eurostat data in 2016, Poland had the fourth highest percentage of farmers in the 15-to-39-year age group (48.2 percent) – Malta had 53.8 percent, Cyprus had 49 percent and Luxembourg 48.3 percent. But compared to larger countries, France had 42.6 percent, Germany 40.2 percent, Hungary 43 percent, Spain 40.6 percent.
Agricultural production is split roughly in half between crop production and livestock production.
The largest animal sectors are pig and poultry followed by milk production. In terms of agricultural output, pigs account for 2.973 billion euros, poultry 2.283 billion euros and milk products 3.934 billion euros.
Interestingly, pig population was 11,203,000 head in 2020, a decrease of 4,000,000 (over 26 percent) from the 2010 agricultural census.
Cereals Cereal production Poland produces around 27 million tonnes (t) of cereals on an annual basis. Poland’s wheat production accounts for roughly one-third of this production. Poland ranks third in EU for wheat production with around 12 million t production in 2021. Wheat exports can fluctuate and since 2014 have ranged between 1.5 and 2.5 million tonnes per year, which is roughly 15-20 percent of production. Germany would be one of the main markets for Polish wheat. Poland also exports products of primary processing, so around 300,000 t of flour (Focus on Poland).
Table 2: Poland wheat production and exports (metric tonnes)
Source: Eurostat
The following section will look at the data from Table 3 and associated charts to show where Poland ranks against other EU member states and how its production in certain cereals has increased since 2010.
Table 3: Cereal production: Chart comparing Poland with EU top producers with regards to soft wheat, barley, triticale production
Source: DG Agriculture, compiled New AG International
Chart 1: Soft wheat production for selected countries (000 tonnes)
This chart shows Poland (red line) which is the third ranked producer of wheat within the member states of the EU, behind France and Germany. Romania is ranked fourth. Poland’s production has grown from just under 10 million t in 2010 to around 12.1 million t in 2021, an increase of 21 percent. According to the Statistical Yearbook 2020, the sown wheat area increased by around 400,000 ha between 2010 and 2019, to around 2.5 million hectares. As well as area, the increase in production came about by an increase from four t/ha to five t/ha. By comparison, yield in France or Germany would be seven to eight t/h.
Chart 2: Grain maize production for selected countries (000 tonnes)
For grain maize production Poland ranks third, behind France and Romania. Although Hungary has been the long-term third placed ranking. Production has increased from around two million t in 2010 to 7.5 million t in 2021, as shown by the red line for Poland.
Chart 3: Barley production for selected countries (000 tonnes)
When it comes to barley production, Poland is ranked fifth behind France, Germany, Spain and Denmark. This is one cereal where Poland has not increased production since 2010.
Chart 4: Triticale production for selected countries (000 tonnes)
However, triticale is a cereal where Poland has increased production and is ranked first over France and Germany. Production was around 4.6 million t in 2010 and 5.5 million in 2021.
Apple Fruit exports Poland is the largest producer of apples in the EU. Apple accounts for 89.1 percent of tree fruit production in Poland. Around 50 percent of the crop goes to processing. The largest apple producer in the EU, Poland’s apple production reached four million t in 2018. Typically, Poland will export around 25 percent of production, but it varies from year to year between 20 and 40 percent. In 2018, it was lower at 20 percent or around 780,000 t of apples. Chart 5 reveals that Poland has increased production without really increasing its area, which is the horizontal line showing around 180,000 ha of apple orchard.
Chart 5: Poland Apple production: volume (000 tonnes, right axis) and area (hectares)
How was production increased while holding area almost static? The increase in yield was associated with the introduction of new varieties for commercial production and the establishment of 95 percent of dwarf orchards, a local source told New AG International. Not only has the share of “old” trees decreased but growers are planting trees in greater density, an estimated 3,000-3,500 trees/ha. This increasing intensity lowers costs of production. Using new inputs such as biostimulants and PGRs are helping to increase tonnage and quality of fruits, New AG International was told. The investment costs for establishing dwarf orchards are significant, and the objective is for quality products for higher prices, as opposed to simply increase for low returns.
Apple storage and export In terms of storage, an article in 2009 said Poland had controlled atmosphere (CA) storage capacity for 350,000 t of apples and another 350,000 t of regular storage capacity. This meant the industry could only store 700,000 t out of the almost three million t produced, which would mean it would be sold quickly on market. The storage number has increased, according to the local source, to around two million t, which is a combination of normal atmosphere or cold stores CA or ULO (ultra-low oxygen). Russia used to be a major market for Polish apples, but after 2014 and an embargo from Russia, Poland looked towards other markets, such as Belarus. The reduction of Russian market also meant changes in variety grown. The variety Idared was popular in the Russian market, for example. Germany is a large recipient of Polish apples, so too is the Netherlands. In the future, there is a hope to export to Asia if requirements can be satisfied, New AG International was told.
By region Regional productivity
With around 126,000 t of blackcurrants in 2019, Poland is the largest producer in Europe from around 44,000 ha (GUS).
There was a growth in the volume of vegetables grown under glass and cover between 2010 and 2015 from 689,000 t to one million tonnes. This increased further to 1.121 million t by 2017 and this was the level for 2019 of 1.169 million t. In 2019 the largest producing regions for vegetables grown under cover were Mazowieckie with 312,000 t in 2019, followed by Wielkopolskie with 246,000 t, and some way behind in third place is Lubuskie with 110,000 t.
Table 4: Largest voivodeships for vegetable production under glass and accessible cover in Poland (tonnes/2019)
Source: GUS Statistical Yearbook of Agriculture 2020
Mazowieckie is the largest apple growing region, with 1.4 million t of apples in 2019. The second largest regions are Świętokrzyskie and Łódzkie, with around 500,000 t each. Lubuskie accounts for another 400,000 t. These four regions account for 89 percent of apple production in 2019.
Pear production occurs in a number of the 16 provinces, but Mazowieckie and Lubuskie are the largest producing regions. Mazowieckie is by far the largest with around 30,000 t of production. This region is also the largest for plum, sour cherry and sweet cherry. Świętokrzyskie and Lubuskie are both also large producers of plum and sour cherry. Regarding fruit bushes, Mazowieckie is the largest region for strawberry with around 18,000 ha. A number of provinces have around 2,000 ha. Łódzkie has around 8,000 ha of strawberry. Łódzkie is the largest region for raspberry with around 20,700 ha. Mazowieckie is a large raspberry producer too with around 3,000 ha. Zachodniopomorskie has around 1,500 ha of raspberry and third largest province.
When it comes to the area in currants (predominantly blackcurrants), the largest region is Łódzkie with around 18,000 ha. It also has the largest gooseberry area with 700 ha. With field crops, Lubuskie is the largest growing province for potatoes. The largest viovodeship for cereal is Wielkopolskie, followed by Łódzkie and Mazowieckie. Dolnośląskie is also a large growing area.
Plant nutrition companies The following lists show how active Poland is in terms of biological and fertilizer inputs. Poland has a long-established fertilizer industry, such as Anwil in Wloclawek, which supplies nitrates to the large sugar beet region of Kujawsko-Pomorskie (see map).
Table 5: Selection of biological crop input companies and fertilizer companies active in Poland
Table 5: Selection of biological crop input companies and fertilizer companies active in Poland CONTINUED
Poland’s agriculture sector has gone through a major transformation over the last two decades, becoming a major exporter of apple and blackcurrants, the number three producer of wheat and grain maize in the EU, and number one producer of triticale. As noted by McKinsey there remains a productivity gap that is largely driven by fragmented farm holdings. A solution offered by the consultancy to improve yields was to encourage land leases, contract farming and producer cooperatives. McKinsey also noted back in 2015 that Poland’s agriculture and food industry was skewed towards low value-added produce, but acknowledged the country was moving in the right direction, with value-added food production. The shift towards higher value-added food production will likely be the dominant trend in the next decades, which could offer increased opportunities for biological products and specialty fertilizers.
INTERMAG is based in Olkusz, which is in Małopolskie, the same voivodeship as Kraków. The company is a producer of specialty fertilizers, biostimulants and bioproducts. The company was created in 1988 and since that time, with more than 20 own developed patents, has become a leader in innovative biosolutions for agriculture on the Polish market. With sales operations in more than 45 countries, INTERMAG is well recognized and respected not only in Poland but also in other European countries as well as in North and South America, Africa and Asia. From the very beginning, INTERMAG was focused on increasing farming productivity by providing innovative solutions dedicated to advanced crop nutrition and biostimulation. Our aim has always been to develop and launch technologies for agriculture, which are environmentally friendly and enable the production of healthy food with excellent quality parameters. Modern, environmentally friendly technologies, innovative products based on efficient active substances are something that agriculture is looking for. The growing awareness of food producers and consumers about the harmfulness of pesticides, more and more often leads to the search for food from integrated agricultural production, where the use of agrochemicals is limited, or from organic production, where the use of synthetic agrochemicals is prohibited. This tendency will increase in the coming years due to the European Green Deal and the Farm to Fork strategy, which assume, among others, a reduction in the use of mineral fertilizers and pesticides and an increase in organic production. Such strategy creates an increasing demand for the biostimulants, bioproducts and specialty fertilizers. INTERMAG is a leader in the Polish market in developing and launching innovative products dedicated to agriculture. It was the first fertilizer company in Central and Eastern Europe, which implemented the production of micronutrient chelates in the early 1990s. The company started to develop products aimed at plant biostimulation in the times when the term “biostimulant” was not known and used in agriculture. The first INTERMAG biostimulant – TYTANIT, based on titanium organic compound – was launched in the Polish market in the 1990s. Since that time, it is INTERMAG’s flagship product, used not only in Poland but in more than 30 countries worldwide. Developing and launching TYTANIT put INTERMAG’s attention on elements described as beneficial for plants. In 2014 the company launched OPTYSIL, a biostimulant based on a plant available form of silicon, which is characterized by high content of silicon, neutral pH and excellent compatibility with other agrochemicals. The next step in developing that segment of products was launching VANADOO, a biostimulant based on an organic form of vanadium. The latest achievement in our work on beneficial elements for plants is the development of JOSEK, a product aimed at biofortification of plants with iodine and selenium. Plants biofortified with iodine and selenium can be a great source of those elements, which are critical to animal and human health. The need to increase nutrient use efficiency, tightening rules on chemical residues in food and in the environment, and perceiving the importance of proper soil parameters make farmers pay more attention on bioproducts and on the role of beneficial microbes in agriculture. Seeing that trend, INTERMAG decided to actively enter into the field of bioproducts. Since 2014 we have been developing products based on beneficial bacteria under our BACTIM brand. Currently, we offer solutions improving soil fertility by increasing content of humus and plant available forms of nutrients as well as improving soil health. Newly opened and one of the most modern in Europe biotechnological plant intended for manufacturing of products based on beneficial microbes will let us to intensify our efforts in developing, producing and launching innovative biosolutions for agriculture.
Izabela Gruszecka, Tradecorp Country Manager in Poland
Q. Can you give an overview of the biostimulant market in Poland? A. The Polish biostimulant market follows the European trends, and we can observe a growing number of new biostimulant solutions year after year. Several companies like Tradecorp are making farmers more aware of the advantages that come from using these solutions for plants, as well as the impact on the return on investment. On top of this, we can observe climate change not just in Poland: warmer winters, and hotter and dryer summers are the new conditions that farmers should manage in their crops. This situation is causing high abiotic stresses compared to 20 years ago. This new reality is forcing farmers to look for new solutions to decrease the abiotic stress, and this is seen as an opportunity for many companies that are present in Poland, from local competitors to more international players.
Q. Which products will Tradecorp be supplying to the Polish market? Can you give an indication of your customers? A. Tradecorp has a wide portfolio of products that answer to almost all the farmers’ needs in terms of biostimulation. In this frame, some years ago we have launched a campaign called Biostimulation 360º to support the farmers in the prevention of consequences of abiotic stress and how to take care of them from a 360º strategy, with a full portfolio of solutions to prevent and solve abiotic stress in all crops during all crop cycles. We support farmers with already well-known solutions in the Polish market, such as Delfan Plus (amino acid range), Phylgreen (seaweed range) and Humistar or Turbo Root, based on humic acids. During 20 years of presence in the Polish market, we’ve built partnership cooperations with distributors providing solutions to increase quality and profit to arable crops, greenhouses and orchards farmers. As a leader in developing new sustainable products, we have recently introduced new solutions in the market such as Biimore, the ultra-efficient biostimulant obtained from an exclusive and sustainable plant fermentation process, that places the company at the global forefront of innovation and sustainability. With this new incorporation, Tradecorp continues reinforcing its portfolio of new generation of sustainable biostimulants based on primary and secondary compounds that are obtained from natural sources.
Q. What are the main trends you are seeing in the Polish agricultural sector? A. Farm to Fork is a strategy promoted by the European Union which aims to respond to the challenges of finding sustainable food systems and understands that there is a close relationship between healthy people, healthy societies and a healthy planet, also linked to the reduction or ban of certain crop protection products. Polish agriculture is also participating to these trends, eco and sustainable products are the future of Polish agriculture sector, but there is still some confusion in the market related to what a biostimulant, a biocontrol or a product for organic farming are. In Tradecorp, as part of the Rovensa group, we work to give the right answers and solutions to each problem that farmers can experience. ●
Key statistics for vegetables GUS Statistical Yearbook of Agriculture 2020
GUS – 2020 Agricultural Census Information on Preliminary results – March 2021
Eurostat/ DG Agri – DG for Agriculture and Rural Development
Poland 2025: Europe’s new growth engine January 2015 McKinsey & Company Wojciech Bogdan, Daniel Boniecki, Eric Labaye, Tomasz Marciniak, Marcin Nowacki
www.world-grain.com Focus on Poland (2015)
Apple orchards in Brzeziny County, Lodzkie Voivodeship, Poland
Intermag Headquarters
Table 1: Country and Land Use data summary
Source: World Bank (population), Eurostat, GUS (Poland national statistics), Agricultural Census 2020