Poland to expand poultry meat production and exports | Progresiv
Poland’s poultry production could increase by 13% this year, leading the state-run Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics (IERiGZ) to suggest the industry could grow chicken exports by 18%. 
Last year, local poultry meat industry players managed to produce some 2.3mt of poultry meat. Currently, about 42% of Poland’s output is intended for export sales, and this share is expected to grow at a rapid pace to 2.6 million tonnes (mt) this year, figures from the country’s Agricultural Market Agency (ARR) indicate.
Exports on the rise
From January to June 2016, Polish poultry meat industry players exported 572,000t, an increase of 14% compared with the same period a year earlier. The total value of Poland’s poultry meat exports in the first half of 2016 stood at some €977m, up from €911m in the first six months of last year, according to data from the ARR. It is noteworthy that, from January to June 2016, Poland also raised its imports of poultry meat, which rose by 5% to 60,000t. The imports were worth about €124m, up from €117m in the same period a year earlier.
“Exports are a very important element of the activities of the poultry industry… because the level of its production is significantly higher than the needs of the domestic market,” Rajmund Paczkowski, the president of the National Poultry Council (KRD), told local news agency Newseria. “It has been two years since [Poland] became the leading European Union member state in the field of poultry production, our output is the highest. We precede France, which has an annual production of about 2m tonnes of poultry meat.”
Industry investments
The industry’s increased export sales are the driving force behind the latest string of investments unveiled by a number of Polish poultry meat processors. The companies which aim to invest in expanding and modernising their output capacities include Polish poultry meat processor SuperDrob , which earlier this year announced plans to allocate at least PLN200m (€46m) with the aim of raising its output capacity, constructing a new facility and increasing its sales. The firm is planning to expand the total output capacity of its meat processing facilities in Poland by some 50% by the end of 2016.
Other notable examples from the Polish poultry meat industry include local processor Konspol , which also aims to invest up to PLN200m to raise its processing capacity, but also finance potential acquisitions of competitors in the Polish market and other European countries. Exports are responsible for about 30% of Konspol’s sales revenues, and the company has established a presence in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Switzerland and Slovakia, as well as the Scandinavian countries.
Headquartered in Poland’s capital Warsaw, the IERiGZ was set up in 1950, and is overseen by the Polish Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Source: globalmeatnews.com
