Black currant in Poland
Currant is a fruit whose consumption reduces the level of bad cholesterol and blood sugar. Owing to the high content of antioxidants, it is suitable for health prevention. Currants are commonly used in the food industry.
Poland is the second, after Russia, global producer of currants, in terms of volume. The total harvest of currants in Poland accounts for 25% of the global harvest and for 78% of the European Union’s harvest.
Poland is also a definite EU leader in the production of black currants, with the 78% share in the harvest of these fruit in the European Union in 2020. Plantations of currants in our country are located in mainly in four voivodeships: Lubelskie, Mazowieckie, Łódzkie and Świętokrzyskie. The cultivation area of currants in Poland is relatively stable and in the last three years it has been at the level of 43–44 thousand ha, whereby the share of black currant plantations decreases and the share of coloured currants increases. The production of currants in the years of good harvest exceeded 160 thousand tonnes in Poland. The cultivation of black currants is the most popular. According to CSO estimates, more than 150 thousand tonnes of currants were harvested in total in 2021 in the country. Black currants accounted for 73% in the product range structure of production, and their harvest amounted to more than 111 thousand tonnes.
Black currants are of relatively low importance in consumption in their fresh form, and the majority of the harvest is used for the purposes of the domestic processing industry – mainly for the production of concentrates, juices, frozen products and jams – intended for the domestic market and sold abroad.
Black currants are exported to foreign markets mainly as frozen. By 2018, the export of frozen black currants from Poland has been steadily growing. In the last three years, the volume of foreign sales of this product range has decreased. In the years 2018–2020, the export of frozen currants was reduced from 45 thousand tonnes to 34 thousand tonnes. In the first five months of 2021, Poland exported 13.2 thousand tonnes of frozen black currants when compared to 13.7 thousand tonnes in 2020. The foreign customers of frozen black currants were mainly:
- Belarus (4.8 thousand tonnes, 36% of export volume),
- Germany (2.8 thousand tonnes, 21%) and
- the United Kingdom (1.3 thousand tonnes, 10%).
The foreign sales of fresh black currants, due to the specific nature of these fruit, takes place on a relatively small scale and since 2017 has been on a downward trend. In the years 2017–2020, the export of these fruit was reduced from 3.4 thousand tonnes to 1.3 thousand tonnes. These fruit were mainly exported to the German market. In July 2021, the prices of currants are higher than the last year. According to the data of the MARD Integrated Agricultural Market Information System, on 12–13 July 2021 black currants were bought, depending on the voivodeship, for PLN 3.80–4.14/kg against PLN 3.44–3.76/kg the year before. The relatively high level of buying-in prices of currants is a resultant of both the supply and demand situation, characterized by the high demand for black currant products, and the rising costs of cultivation in plantations.
Source: Polish Food Autumn 2021