Organic Food in Poland


Organic food in Poland still at the early stage of development and there are many barriers overcome, it’s related to supply and demand. According to Zokowska-Biemans (2009) explained that the most important factor driving purchase organic food are health, safety and taste [1] The emerging organic food is not automatically lead the positive comment from the consumers, there is also negative comments also arose.
Up to now, there are more than 285.000 ha under organic production with 15.000 farms in 2010 [2]. They are rapidly growth after 2004 since Poland are part of EU members and actively committed in to organic regulation. Total agriculture land is 16.3 million ha which is account of 52 % from total area. In Poland there consisted mostly small scale farm with 8 ha in averages. The working share in agriculture is 28.7 %. It is very low GDP contribution from agriculture which is 2.9 %.
All the load of promotion is the hand of farmers, shops owner, other operator in organic farming and NGO’s. The results of their activities can be seen at some regions, where the market is noticeable. There are many expectations of market development laid down in national action plan for organic food and farming preparing by ministry agriculture and rural development. At the beginning of 2006 there are plans for preparation of three years promotion champagne directed to consumers and farmers with budget of 12 million PLN.
Accronding to Zokowska-Biemans (2003) concluded that the difficulties are unrecognized demand, consumers consciousness’ and lack promotion; available mainly in direct selling, only 50 certified in 2004, high premium prices sometime up to 300 %, inconsistent supply, difficult implementing product in supermarket, not recognized share of organically produced food sold as conventional.
Since 2004, there is new subsides system in organic farm in Poland. All subsides for organic are paid on top of direct EU payment to agricultural land. Subsides for farms under conversation are slightly higher to compensate for especially difficult situation of farming under organic rules without having certificate yet. This period lasts between two and three years.
As mentioned, eco-subsidies are paid on top of regular direct payments and therefore, the total subsidy level for organic farms must be calculated by adding those two elements. The regular direct payments consist of three parts: first is the basic payment paid even for unused land - in 2005 it was 225 PLN/hectare, second is the additional payment paid only to certain kinds of crops, which amounted to 282 PLN/hectare and third is the so called ONW-payment, which is a special payment for unfavourable farming conditions – between 179 and 414 PLN/hectare. This means that total conventional direct EU-subsidies for crops were in 2005 between: PLN 225 and PLN 921 per hectare.
Given the overall low degree of organic development in Poland, 45% declared users appears to be very high. But it is important to remember that the level of knowledge and information about organic food is still very low, leading to a significant number of consumers declaring to buy food that they consider organic, but that does not meet our definition of organic food. Breaking down the declared users of organic food further, one can differentiate three main groups: almost half of declared users are actually “mistaken organic buyers”, as they are not able to correctly define the term “organic”, declare to buy in stores that actually do not offer certified organic food (e.g. hypermarkets) or admit that they are not able to recognize organic food. Many of these consumers mix up organic food with healthy food (e.g. low cholesterol, low sugar, etc.).
To look more deeply the fact of organic farmer in Poland, we travelled to the place Ca 80 Km from Warsaw. Based on the field trip and visiting small farm, we found that, farmers got 600 Zloty per ha annually with less than 5 ha land. They keep the poultry organically. They produced jam from the forest surround. They had certified by Agro-Bio-test, we found from their product like shown in pictures 1 below. There is no nationwide logo for organic product in Poland, therefore  there are only Agro-bio-test logo appear in the corner of the seal. The Polish consumers rely on the shop assistant and they tend to buy the organic product which is offered.   
What we found that the farmer is very satisfied with the conversion to organic farmland. They got assisted from the officers what should to do for their land. They are dried they herb, grain and feed in the solar dryer which saving the energy and also environmental friendly. The dryer are generated by photovoltaic. They told us that they have not good soil compare to Germany. They had a little bit sandy soils and difficult to them to get high yield. But farmers we visited claimed to receive subsidies for the development of organic land in accordance with the Polish and EU regulations.
Besides agriculture they are also doing cutting-rich of their own forests. They received support from the local Institute of ecology. They said they were very happy to move from conventional to organic system. In the future, they are also planning to increase the area of land and converse to organic system.
They have their own transportation its make them easier to distribute their product on the marketplace, even though most of them were sold in Warsaw. Slaughtering the chickens was done by them self. They also have apple trees and Cherry trees. They make Jam on cherry and apple as well. They are also harvesting the Marshoom and wild berries from the forest and produce Jam too.  
Obstacles they are facing that low fertility of land is marked by a sandy soil type. They have 8 hectares of land with a variety of chicken, duck and white mini-duck. They also divide into two sections one for the broiler and one for eggs. It is not easy for them to manage when spread of disease. They never used the antibiotic for their poultry. There is no need for them to fulfil continuous demand from the market. They would sell if the have enough production, there is no demand pressured. Therefore,  they are also explained, in case of an outbreak of disease they would not use antibiotics but they prefer to took a break in production for a while and they have to wait until the sterilizations are done by government
Admittedly organic agriculture and organic consumption in Poland is not so popular. The whole supply chains in organic food in Poland should be developing before hand. According to the investigation conducted by Luczka_Bakula and Smoluk_Sikorska (2006) (4) showed that sales to consumers dominated in sales of organic plant products. It mainly occurred in vegetables (77.8%) and fruits (61.3%). Quite often farmers sold their products at local fairs, to processing plants, agents and specialist shops. Direct sales also dominated in organic farms specialising in livestock. Over 93% poultry and 85% eggs producers sold organics to consumers. Also processing plants and agents were quite significant in this area. Very few organic farmers sold their products to wholesalers, conventional shops or restaurants.
According to the half of the investigated farmers, sales to consumers was characterised by the best sales conditions, because it was associated with high price, which was believed to be one of the most important factors of organic farms profitability (Nieberg, Offerman 2008). The next advantage was that purchasers took the transportation cost over. This form also gave market information on consumers’ expectations and preferences. In farmers’ opinion one could obtain higher price at a farm gate than at a farmers’ fair. The additional weaknesses of this form of sales were fairground charges. On the other hand, farmers’ fairs took place in the neighbourhood of farms, which reduced transportation cost.
Farmers preferred shorter distributions channels, especially specialist shops. Large distance to marketplace and low production made regular deliveries difficult. Although the transportation cost was mainly taken over by farmers, in their opinion it assured relatively high prices. Often individual farmers supplied with their produce several shops in one city, which was a method of reducing the average distribution cost. The negative is that most specialist shops were not adjusted to store organic milk and meat. Sales to agents had also good opinion, because purchasers took the transportation cost over, although they did not offer the highest prices. Organics were also sold to processing plants (mostly conventional) on a basis of a contract. However farmer had to comply with quality requirements concerning size and shape of products, which was quite difficult to achieve in organic farming.


[1] S. Zakowska-Biemans (2009). Factor underlying consumption of organic food in the opinion of Polish consumers
[2]Główny Inspektorat Jakości Handlowej Artykułów Rolno-Spożywczych. Present state and trends in development of organic farming. in Polish.

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