Increase in the export of food from Poland
In the period of January-March 2022, the total export value of agri-food goods from Poland increased, in relation to the same period of 2021, by 16.2%, to EUR 10.2 billion (PLN 46 billion). The increase in the export in the first three months of 2022 has mainly resulted from the PLN/EUR exchange rate beneficial to exporters, which, due to the dominant share of the EU countries in the Polish export, generated an increase in revenues.
The export limited the negative impact of the armed conflict in Ukraine on the results of agri-food export in total.
About 75% of revenues from the export of agri-food products were generated by the sale to the European Union countries. In the EU market, goods worth EUR 7.6 billion were sold, which meant increase by 21% when compared to the first quarter of 2021. The largest revenues from the export to the EU-27 came from the sale to
- Germany (EUR 2.6 billion, increase by 18%),
- the Netherlands (EUR 669 million, increase by 34%),
- France (EUR 650 million, increase by 26%),
- Italy (EUR 500 million, decrease by 1%) and
- the Czech Republic (EUR 451 million, increase by 25%).
Agri-food products worth EUR 2.6 billion (increase by 4%) were exported to the non-EU countries, of which the export to the non-EU countries (non-CIS countries) increased by 6% to EUR 2.2 billion.
Major customers of domestic agri-food products, just like in previous years, were mainly:
- the United Kingdom (revenues at the level of EUR 836 million, increase by 32%),
- the United States (EUR 183 million, increase by 33%) and
- Saudi Arabia (EUR 107 million, decrease by 43%), followed by
- Israel (EUR 82 million, increase by 29%),
- Norway (EUR 69 million, increase by 28%), as well as
- Switzerland (EUR 61 million, increase by 38%).
In the first quarter of 2022, the export to the CIS countries was at the level of EUR 416 million, by 5% lower than in the comparable period of the previous year. Poland exported to the CIS countries mainly
- bread and bakery products (EUR 34 million),
- chocolate products (EUR 26 million),
- cheese and curd (EUR 21 million),
- pet food (EUR 19 million),
- processed vegetables (EUR 16 million) and
- fresh apples and pears (EUR 16 million).
The commodity structure of Polish agri-food export in the first quarter of 2022 was dominated by meat and meat products EUR 2.0 billion, increase by 28%), mainly poultry meat and beef, meat products and pork. Another group was cereals and products (EUR 1.2 billion, increase by 3%), tobacco and tobacco products (EUR 1.0 billion, increase by 1%), milk products (EUR 0.8 billion, increase by 33%) and sugar and confectionery (EUR 0.7 billion, increase by 17%).
The import of agri-food goods in the first quarter of 2022 amounted to EUR 7.2 billion (PLN 3.3 billion) and was by 21.6% higher than the year before. A very large increase in the import resulted from the rising transaction prices of imported raw materials. In the period of January-March 2022, the positive trade balance amounted to EUR 3.0 billion (PLN 14 billion), by 5.1% higher than in the corresponding period of 2021.
Source: Polish food
