Organic production and consumption of organic products in Poland
There are fewer and fewer people willing to conduct organic production in Poland. Nevertheless, the national area of ecological agricultural land has significantly increased. Polish consumers, however, expect more organic products on the shelves. Despite the pandemic and the savings declared in connection with it, spending on organic products is not falling, but is actually growing faster than before.
In 10 years, the area under organic production - according to the assumptions of the European Green Deal - is to increase in the EU to 25%! Today, on a European scale, it is 7%, of which 3% in Poland. And according to the latest data by the Inspection of Commercial Quality of Agri-Food Products - it is improving in terms of organic farming area.
At the end of 2019, 20 144 producers in Poland were using ecological methods, covering a total area of 507 637,13 ha. For comparison - a year earlier there were 405 more organic producers in our country, but they conducted their production on 484 676,15 ha. The national area of ecological agricultural land has therefore increased during the year by almost 23 000 ha!
Last year, 18 637 farmers were involved in organic, typical agricultural production, which is 570 less than the year before. 144 producers supplied organic, certified seed and propagating material to the market, 25 ran organic apiaries, 6 kept fish organically and 33 producers conducted ecological activities in the field of "harvesting from the nature".
A total of 1 022 producers were involved in the preparation of organic products (which means: preserving, processing, including slaughter and cutting, packaging or labeling), and in 2019, 1 279 producers were involved in placing organic products on the market, including 238 importers who introduced to the market organic products imported from third countries.
The largest number of ecological producers is in the Warmińsko-Mazurskie province – 3 265 registered entities, and most of them deal with typical agricultural production. There are almost 108 thousand ha of land under organic farming - the largest number out of all other regions of the country. Here, too, is the largest number of producers of organic seed and propagating material - 35.
The second place - in terms of the number of ecological farmers - belongs to the Podlaskie province (2902 entities) and in most cases - these farmers are involved in agricultural production. The third place is Mazowieckie province with the number of 2 676 ecological producers. Typical agricultural production also takes the lead here, and 13 entities produce organic seed and propagating material.
The second place in terms of the total area under ecological crops is the Zachodniopomorskie province - nearly 102 000 ha. The inhabitants of the Opolskie province show the least interest in organic farming - there are just over 3 000 hectares of organic farmland and only 75 organic producers in this region.
Despite the pandemic and the savings declared in connection with it, spending on organic products is not only not falling, but is actually growing faster than before - informed “Rzeczpospolita” daily.
Certified organic products have been one of the most dynamically growing parts of the food market for years. The latest study by Nielsen shows that in the first half of the year the organic products market in Poland grew by 28% y/y (in comparison, in 2019, sales in the first six months was 19.8% higher than in 2018). Therefore, despite the pandemic and the prices still higher than the same products but nonorganic, the sector is growing faster and faster.
According to the Nielsen survey, in the last 12 months Poles spent a total of over PLN 700 million on organic products, but the actual amount is even higher. The data does not include fresh fruit and vegetables sold by weight or the entire internet trade, and it is growing more and more clearly.
Among the most popular organic products, there are products for children, dairy products and plant substitutes for dairy products" - the newspaper wrote.
As we read, the sales value of these products is growing by 20% y/y, i.e. 3.5 times faster than sales of the entire grocery basket. "We are observing an increase in sales in all months of this year compared to last year", says Nielsen, quoted by Rzeczpospolita.
Source: farmer.pl, rp.pl