Henryk Kowalczyk, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, informed that the value of Polish food exports in 2021 increased by 9% compared to 2020 and reached an unprecedented level of EUR 37.4 billion, i.e. PLN 170.8 billion. The exporters of meat and grains contributed to a large part of this result. Germany remains the largest recipient of Polish food products.

The head of the Ministry of Agriculture pointed out that a good pace of export growth is maintained, with a simultaneous lower pace of import growth. Kowalczyk added that the difference between exports and imports has increased by nearly 10% and the positive balance of trade in food products currently amounts to EUR 12.7 billion.

According to the data of the Analyzes and Strategy Bureau of the National Center for Agricultural Support (KOWR), approximately 73% of income from the export of agri-food products were generated by sales to European Union countries. The largest revenues from exports were obtained from sales to Germany (EUR 9.4 billion, an increase of 9%), the Netherlands (EUR 2.2 billion, an increase of 16%), France (EUR 2.1 billion, an increase of 16%), Italy (1.9 billion euros, an increase of 10%) and the Czech Republic (1.6 billion euros, an increase of 5%).

Outside the EU, agri-food products worth EUR 10.3 billion (an increase of 3%) were exported – the most to Great Britain (EUR 3.0 billion, a decrease of 4%), to Ukraine (EUR 0.8 billion, an increase of 7%), Russia (EUR 0.7 billion, increase by 19%), USA (EUR 0.6 billion, increase of 14%) and Saudi Arabia (EUR 0.5 billion, decrease of 26%) and Algeria (EUR 0.4 billion, an increase of 66%).

Exports were dominated by meat and meat products (EUR 7.0 billion, an increase of 9%), cereal grains and processed products (EUR 4.7 billion, an increase of 10%), tobacco and tobacco products (EUR 4.1 billion, a decrease of 4%), sugar and confectionery (EUR 2.8 billion, increase of 9%), dairy products (EUR 2.6 billion, increase of 13%) and fish and fish products (EUR 2.4 billion, increase of 4%).

In the opinion of KOWR analysts, the increase in exports in 2021 was primarily the result of lifting restrictions on international trade introduced for pandemic reasons in the first half of the year; significant diversification of export directions, which allowed to compensate for the decline in the value of exports to Great Britain after leaving the EU customs union; the growing economic activity of Polish entrepreneurs and good preparation of domestic companies to operate in the conditions of a pandemic.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński