Poland Beginning To Boost Its Presence In European Organic Food Production

The Warsaw Journal reports that Poland has the right mix of resources and other factors that could make it “an important player” in Europe’s growing organic foods market. The country so far has been a small consumer of organic foods – only 0.2 percent of food purchases in 2009, or about €50 million, were in the organic category – but consumer interest is growing. With European and global organic demand on the rise, organic production in Poland is increasing as well, thanks to competitive prices, a large workforce and many small-scale, traditional farms that are easy to convert to organic methods. Through 2010, the number of organic farms and total area devoted to organic food production have soared: from 3,760 to 20,000 farms, and from 82,730 to more than 500,000 hectares. The number of processing plants in turn grew from 50 to nearly 300. Also driving expansion has been the rapid development of a sales network for organic products in Poland. The number of organic stores should grow from 300 in 2010 to around 500 by the end of 2011.