The organic sector in Poland

The development of organic agriculture in Poland is considered to be very important since it will provide new jobs, encourage the development of rural areas and foster the protection of the environment.

Through encouraging financial subsidies for conversion to organic production, the country is on the way to reach the goal set for the year 2013 when 25,000 farms and an area of 500,000 hectares are to be certified as organic. The number of farms working to organic guidelines has increased from 3,760 in 2004 to almost 12,000 in 2007 (+ 29 %). More than half of the farms are still in the conversion period. The “conversion boom” in organic farming can mostly be explained by the introduction of higher financial grants after Poland had joined the European Union.


In 2007, organic farmers cultivated almost 286,000 hectares (up from 82,700 hectares in 2004 – a plus of 25 %), which represents 1.8 % of the Polish agricultural area. First evaluations already show that in 2008 about 310,000 hectares of land were cultivated organically. 44 % of the organic area is arable land and 51 % is grassland. Organic farmers mostly produce wheat, rye, barley, as well as oats and potatoes. Fruit production - especially the cultivation of berries and apples - is also of high importance and covered an area of about 20,000 hectares in 2006. Since more than three quarters of the organic fruit area have been under conversion since 2006, most of the products will firstly be available on the organic market the upcoming year. Until now, products of animal origin are still not very important, except of milk and eggs, reports Ekoconnect. Organic beef and pork still represent less than 0.5 % of the organic food production.


Market research has shown that there is a growing interest for organic products among consumers. However, there is still a lack of information about organic products and consumers are not always able to find organic products in the shops. The data from the Polish authority IJHARS show that in 2007, there were 207 organic manufactories and merchants in the country, whereas in 2004 there had been only 55. They are mostly located in urban areas like Warsaw, Krakow, Poznan, and Bialystok. There are about 250 small and medium organic shops in Poland such as Skarby smaku and Blizej Natury. Their share of organic products is about 60 to 80 %. Besides the small organic shops, supermarkets like WSS Spolem and Piotr i Pawel have started to introduce separate shelves for organic products.


Source: www.ekoconnect.org