A couple of days ago, the Embassy organized a webinar about the current situation on the greenhouse market in Poland. Similar to the Dutch market, Polish growers also had difficulties caused by the energy crisis. There are, however some differences between the two markets. Watch the whole webinar or read the brief summary of it.
The webinar was based on the report on the same topic.
Economic characteristic
Poland is the 5th largest economy in the EU. A net importer from the Netherlands, the 6th trading partner for the agrifood sector in general, and the 5th export destination for flowers and plants from the Netherlands.
The real GDP growth is slowing down, according to diverse estimations, it will be only 0.5% in 2023. The reason for this situation is the high inflation rate: in February 2023, it was even 17%. The inflation rate dropped in the meantime significantly but still notes a double-digit number.
Poland has a large domestic market but is also a big hub for customers from other countries of Central and Eastern Europe, including Ukraine. Another advantage of the country is the current nearshoring trend: many productions are being moved closer in order to shorten the delivery chain. Poland is becoming beneficent of this trend: recently, Pepsico opened a new factory in Poland, and other large concerns like Danone announced an investment of 15 mln euros in the dairy sector in this country.
Unemployment rate
As in many other countries, Poland is lacking labor. The current unemployment rate in Poland is only 3.2%. The tendency shows that the cost of labor is very high. It is now the biggest challenge for a producer. Before the war, many Ukrainian men were working in the Polish greenhouses. Now, also manpower of refugees from Ukraine has also rebalanced this bad trend for Polish greenhouse producers. But workers are also coming from the far East or even South America.
Source: agroberichtenbuitenland.nl