Food producers need to consolidate

Some three quarters of the food will be sent to EU markets.

However, food producers are beginning to come around to the idea that in order to compete successfully with the big concerns which dominate the European market, they will have to consolidate, as the majority of Polish food companies - even those with fairly recognizable brands - are small and medium-sized family firms.

"Thanks to many years of experience, we know how to deal with big supermarket chains, etc. But big players have a better negotiating position," says Marian Owerko, CEO of Bakalland and co-founder of the Food Business Group (FBG), an association of Polish food producers.

"When we want to do something abroad we cannot count on the Polish government, as its help is non-existent. We decided to establish the FBG after we found out that last year's budget for the promotion of Polish food products in Germany amounted to zł.17,000," Owerko says.

According to Bartłomiej Pawlak of Ernst and Young, Poland's expenditures on promotion lack strategy.

"There are three main barriers for Polish companies abroad - the first one is actually entering the market, the second is Poland's lack of popularity as a brand and finally the lack of strategy on the side of the government as to how to improve it," Pawlak says.

He believes that consolidation will give them the "critical mass" to compete abroad.