Poland pig market in a double dilemma: rising import dependency in pork and piglets Until shortly after the EU accession the Polish pigmeat production and domestic consumption rose an average. In the last 10 years, both production volume and pork consumption are declining. Poland was until shortly after his accession net exporter of pork on the basis of its own piglet production. Which has over the last 10 years fundamentally changed. Now has become Poland net import area for pork . At the same time the number of import piglet grows to now 4.5 million animals per year, to just to be able to maintain the pork production in their own country. What are the causes of this development? First of all, you should hold that in Poland due to the low population density and high agricultural land availability actually favourable conditions exist for the finishing . The construction and environmental requirements are significantly lower than in the urban centres of North West Europe. Workforce and stable buildings cost less money than in other areas. The problem of Poland consists in its overwhelming majority of small area equipped and organised small businesses. The average size of farms is about 12 ha LF. Half of the companies has not more than 5 ha LF, about 90% of farms cultivate less than 30 hectares. The number of held pigs is 60 animals per holding, the sows are averaging 17 animals per unit. by 2015, still more than 45% of the sows in units were held less than 20 animals. In addition are also "large stocks" with over 200 sows, which now have a share of 25% . It these are often successor organizations by heads of State and cooperative farms, recently also of newly established corporations, some with foreign participation. These include companies with multiple 1,000 sows. The insufficient proportion of medium-size stocks of sows is typical for Poland as a basis, are used for further development. There is a growing polarization of small and "Grösstbeständen". The Polish sow numbers have since accession to the EU by half. Yet only 800,000 are left by formerly 1.8 million sows. Given the high percentage of the animals in uneconomical small stocks is anticipated that a further reduction is expected in the next few years. In the course of the generational the self-catering business will progressively take. Offset the piglet deficit by increasing imports of pigs from Denmark and the Netherlands in recent years. Further increases will be necessary. But Germany is a strong competitor, which also benefits from a larger transport close to the export area with a deficit of piglets of less than 20%. Surplus piglets walk normally at the site where the most is paid. There are the Polish pig importers at a disadvantage, which balance is only by higher prices of piglets. If Poland wants to keep the pork production to previous levels, more imports of piglets will be necessary. Whether this level of production can be kept, is doubtful.
