Polish apples and global market challenges. Opportunities and current threats

On May 28, 2014, a horticultural conference entitled 'Polish apples and global market challenges. Opportunities and current threats’ took place in Warsaw and were dedicated to issues related to the export of Polish apples. The conference was held under the auspices of the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and was attended by scientists, representatives of state administration, traders and board members of apple producer groups.

The initiator and organizer of the conference was the Oikos publishing house, operator of the TSW Horticulture and Vegetable Market Fair with the Institute of Horticulture in Skierniewice, the National Association of Fruit and Vegetable Producers Groups, the Society for the Development of Dwarf Orchards, the Association of Polish Fruit Growers and the Horticultural and Processing Forum.

The topics discussed included the most important issues related to improving the quality of dessert apples, concentration of supply, searching for new markets, especially in the face of the risk of significant reduction of fruit exports to the East and the need of searching for the new destinations.

Chances and risks

As one of the speakers emphasized - prof. dr. hab. Eberhard Makosz - too many producers in Poland export apples. It is necessary to concentrate the supply, e.g. limiting to 5-6 large commercial units that would be able to export around 70% of all apples. It is advisable to increase the number of apple producers in organizations dealing with apple export and close cooperation between producers and exporters, institutions and companies related to production and export. Another important export-promoting factor is the promotion of our apples abroad, carried out e.g. by Polish foreign branches. We need support from entities exporting apples by our government, e.g. co-financing of large trade units exporting apples. It will be important to maintain good economic and political relations with the governments of the countries to which we already export or will export apples.

Dariusz Goszczyński, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Markets, talked about the mechanisms of supporting the promotion of Polish apples abroad.  Director Agnieszka Rembisz from the Agricultural Market Agency reported the industry program for the promotion of Polish food specialties and other promotional activities implemented by the ARR [pl abbrev. For Agricultural Market Agency]

Adam Paradowski from AgroFresh tried to answer the question of whether the countries of the Middle East and North Africa could become a new direction in the export of Polish apples. The presentation was made by the courtesy of Promar and John Giles.

As summed up in his speech, prof. Franciszek Adamicki stated that it seems that now, with the growing production of apples and high export costs to non-European destinations, as well as the unpredictability of the eastern direction, it is now necessary to further increase the share in the production of the highest quality dessert apples for the EU and Polish markets. This is the only way to limit the growing import of dessert apples from the EU directly carried out by networks, which will allow us to preserve or even further develop apple production in Poland.

The conference ended with an hour-long discussion with representatives of fruit producer groups, in which Roman Jagieliński (ROJA), Zbigniew Chołyk (Stryjno-Sad), Hubert Woźniak (RAJPOL), Michał Lachowicz (La-Sad) and Roman Cybulski (Jabłuszko) took part.

The main sponsors of the conference were: Bayer CropScience Polska, Timac Agro Polska, AMG importer of Landini tractors and Weidemann.

The media patronages were: TVP1, the orchard portal e-sadownictwo.pl, the magazines Sad Nowoczesny, Owoce, Warzywa, Kwiaty and the quarterly Technika Sadownicza i Warzywnicza.

Anna Kurek