In terms of strawberry production, Poland ranks second in Europe and eighth in the world, reports the Ministry of Agriculture. In 2018, the country produced approximately 196 thousand tons of the fruit, or 10 percent more than a year earlier. Every second strawberry is exported to foreign markets.
Most Polish strawberries are shipped to the EU market. Last year, Poland exported around 180 million Euro worth of the fruit, with the vast majority (98.5 thousand tons worth an estimated 170 million Euro) being frozen. The main recipients of frozen strawberries were Germany (38%), the Netherlands (12%), France (11%), Belgium (6.5%), Denmark (4.7%), Sweden (4.5%) and the UK (4.4%).
As for fresh strawberries, a total of 5.9 thousand tons worth 8.8 million Euro were shipped. The biggest recipients of such fruits were the Netherlands (23%), Belarus (15%), Lithuania (11%), Germany (10%) and Belgium (7.5%). Outside the European Union, apart from Belarus, the majority of these fruits went to Norway (6.6%).
More and more strawberries are reported to be ending up in the local market, so their prices are falling. On May 28 this year, domestic dessert strawberries cost between 7 and 10 zlotys per kilo (between 1.64 and 2.35 Euro) on the wholesale market in Poznan, and in Bronisze the price oscillated between 4 and 7 zlotys (0.94 to 1.64 Euro).
In 2018, Poland imported 13.5 thousand tons of fresh strawberries. In comparison to 2017, imports fell by more than 11 percent. The value of imports amounted to EUR 27.4 million and dropped by 2.6% compared to 2017. The main suppliers of fresh strawberries were Spain (66%), Greece (11%) and Germany (9.5%), and the biggest ones outside the EU were Serbia, Egypt and Morocco.
The Ministry of Agriculture explained that in the case of frozen strawberries, imports were almost twice as high as in the case of fresh ones. 21.1 thousand tons were brought to Poland (for approximately EUR 29 million). Over 43% of that volume (9.1 thousand tonnes) came from EU countries. The main suppliers in the previous year were Egypt (27%), Germany (20%), China (12%), Ukraine (11%), the Netherlands (8.3%) and the Czech Republic (6.3%).
Source: portalspozywczy.pl