TRADE AND MARKETING Potato sector keenly anticipates growth of Polish supermarkets POLAND IN FIGURES A recent Dutch Press Agency press release about the economy in Poland reported the following: ‘The Polish economy weakened significantly in 2012. The growth figure totalled 2 percent against 4.3 percent in 2011.’ The direct cause is the crisis in the Euro zone, according to the press release. There is also a decrease in the demand for products grown in Poland itself. Economists now fear that Poland will head straight towards a recession. In an attempt to prevent this, the Polish Central Bank has lowered the interest rates three times since November 2012. Meanwhile, consumer spending is under pressure, because employers are lowering the wages and cutting jobs due to the fall in export. As a result, unemployment rose to 13.4 percent. Retail trade sales dropped. Such a drop hasn’t been seen since 2005. Now the potato figures in Poland. The cost price of a crop of table potatoes for professional growers is around 2,000 euros per hectare when Polish seed is used. If seed is imported from the Netherlands, the cost price goes up by a further 200 euros per hectare. This year, the price ex land is 25 euros per 100 kilograms. The price was only 3 euros last year. In the last ten years, the potato acreage has dropped from 1 million hectares to 350,000 this year. The acreage is expected to drop even further. The reason is the increase in scale and the professionalisation of the potato sector. Fewer growers have produced more on less acreage. The average yield is currently 25 tons per hectare. The low average yield is negatively influenced by the many small growers. Yields are expected to go up to 40 tons per hectare as a result of modern cultivation techniques and the use of new varieties. In 2012, Poland still produced 9 million tons of potatoes. This year, growers expect to yield 7.5 tons of potatoes, 2 million tons of which are destined for farm or regional sales, the remainder is sold to bazaars and supermarkets. Eighty percent of the population eats potatoes every day, resulting in an annual consumption of 120 kilograms per head of the population. As the potatoes in the bazaars are much cheaper, the supermarkets can’t yet apply higher prices. Their margins on potatoes are very low. On average, the consumers only pay 80 eurocents per kilogram for a net bag with beautiful, washed potatoes. ‘You must provide the right varieties for each segment and supply potatoes of constant quality all-year-round’, Jerzy Wróbel (r) explains to Engel Louwes. Own crop widens the basis Wróbel has now reached the stage at which he wants to broaden his knowledge of varieties and crops. He is now looking for firm varieties for salads, red-skinned varieties and baby potatoes, for example. That choice has also prompted the requests of his most-important buyers, the various supermarket chains. ‘We’re now testing a wide range of varieties, which we’ll be able to market quickly. A great deal has changed in the Polish potato market since 2000 in that respect’, is the opinion of the Polish entrepreneur. ‘The market has professionalised enormously due to an increasing number of supermarkets, which are also more focused on variation and quality. As a result, sales at local markets and bazaars are decreasing. At this moment, supermarkets are organising appropriate promotions for the potato. These are focused on external qualities and on broadening the product range. Potatoes for salads, frying, boiling, deep-frying, in short, there’ll be more power in the market. This will open up more opportunities for big growers, as supermarkets want to be able to supply potatoes of the same quality all year round. Small Polish growers can’t meet this demand, because they all deliver ex land. Small packagers such as Agrosad invest in their own crop to have potatoes always available. Politicians put the brake on development The increase in scale due to this development is assuming large proportions. The region in which Wróbel is active still had seventy potato growers ten years ago, today only five professionals are left. The politicians are now putting a spoke in the wheels of this positive development, is Wróbel’s view. He Potato World 2014 • number 2 33 Pagina 38
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